Sampath Bank

Sampath Bank PLC (සම්පත් බැංකුව) is a licensed commercial bank incorporated in Sri Lanka in 1987 with 229 branches and 373 ATMs island-wide. It has won the "Bank of the Year" award by The Banker of Financial Times Limited – London, for two consecutive years, and the "National Business Excellence Awards 2010". It has become the third largest private sector bank in Sri Lanka with Rs. 453 billion in deposits as of 30 June 2016.

History
The bank was originally incorporated as the Investment and Credit Bank Limited in 1988. The bank became popularly known as Sampath. In 1988, Sampath Bank started to operate a multi-point network of automated teller machines (ATMs) for the first time in the country, as "Sampath Electronic Teller" or "SET". Then, as the popularity of ATM banking increased it introduced MasterCard (in 1989), PBU (Personal Banking Unit) and Uni-Banking System. The bank was the first to introduce debit cards in South Asia in 1997 and was the first in Sri Lanka to issue a debit card instantly at the time of opening an account. The first-ever Cheque Imaging & Truncating (CIT) site in Sri Lanka was launched by Sampath Bank in 2004. Since 2009, the bank is the third-largest private sector bank in Sri Lanka in terms of total assets.

Growth
The first office of Sampath Bank was located at Wijewardhana Mawatha, Colombo 10 and later in 1998, was moved their headquarters to Sir James Peiris Mawatha, Colombo 02, Sri Lanka. At the end of its first year, the staff had 94 members.

The first ATM operated by the bank was installed in 1986, and by the end of 2007 it had crossed the 150 mark.

In 1996, the bank introduced a "tele-banking" facility. This led to the use of IT-induced banking technology in 1998 and the "SampathNet" – Internet Banking facility launched in July 2000. Its latest innovation is "slipless banking," where no paperwork is required for most over-the-counter transactions.

Today, the bank operates with a total of 229 branches—including 12 super branches—and 360 ATMs, 8 of which operate off-site.

Technology
Since its opening in 1986, Sampath Bank is the first bank in Sri Lanka to operate using a fully computerized database.

Sampath Bank was the first to introduce the use ofATMs, MasterCard, Personal Banking Unit Facilities, Uni Banking System & Debit Cards (Initially with Cirrus and Maestro and Visa) to Sri Lanka. After its massive re-engineering during the transfer to IT-induced banking, it was able to launch Internet Banking, Internet Payment Gateways and 24/7 mobile banking services.

The Bank was the first in Sri Lanka to introduce one-day clearing for all checks drawn on any Sampath branch, collected by any commercial bank on the island and presented through the Sri Lanka Automated Clearing House (SLACH). It launched the first-ever Check Imagine & Truncating (CIT) site in Sri Lanka in October 2004.

Sampath Bank won a Gold and Merit Award at the National Best Quality Software Awards 2008 for developing the "Credit Approval System" (CAS) and "Electronic Money Transfer" (EMTS) applications. It was also honored at the National Science and Technology Awards 2008 in the category of "Local Developed New Technologies" for the "Sampath eRemittance System".