In July 2015, the Sri Lankan Bankers’ Association (SLBA) launched the Sustainable Banking Initiative (SL-SBI). Its purpose is to provide a platform to advance understanding and action on responsible banking practices that can facilitate sustainable economic growth in Sri Lanka. It joins a growing number of similar initiatives across the financial sector globally as the sector comes to terms with the role it has to play in achieving ambitions set out in international and national policies tackling climate change, greener and more inclusive economic growth.

Since its inception, the SL-SBI has successfully crafted and launched a set of Sustainable Banking Principles. The 11 Principles, developed by a committee of participating banks, define how the Sri Lankan banking sector can conduct business to facilitate more sustainable economic growth locally. They were adopted by 18 signatory bank at a CEO Roundtable Event held on the 4th November, 2015. More recently, on the 15th August, 2017 the SL-SBI kick started a programme to develop an ambitious knowledge sharing platform to guide Sri Lankan banks on how to implement the 11 Principles. On completion Bank employees will have access to guidelines for the Principles, an implementation toolkit, case studies and an e-learning course.

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