DFCC Bank at 70: Reimagining Customer Experience in a new era of banking
October 19, 2025
By Shamindra Marcelline, Deputy Chief Executive Officer
The Measure of Service
Customer service is often mistaken for politeness, a smile at a counter, or a scripted greeting on the phone. At DFCC Bank, we have always known it is more than that. Service is the foundation on which relationships are built. The quiet strength transforms transactions into connections, numbers into stories, and a bank into an anchor in people’s lives
For seventy years, through good times and turbulent ones, DFCC Bank has been present and involved – financing factories in the 1950s, empowering entrepreneurs in the 1970s, pioneering renewable energy in the 1990s, and now shaping digital futures in the 2020s. Behind every milestone lies the same truth: progress is not possible without service that is lived, felt, and remembered.
Where Service Is Lived
It is seen in any of DFCC Bank’s 130 branches, where a teller takes time to guide a senior customer through a form. It is heard in the patience of a voice at our contact centre, walking a customer through their very first online transaction. And it is felt in the simplicity of DFCC ONE, where moving money, paying bills, or placing a deposit can be done with just a few taps.
This is not convenience for convenience’s sake. It is dignity in daily life. It is recognising that every interaction – a remittance from abroad, a housing loan for a young family, a line of credit for a small trader – carries the weight of hope. Service means making sure that weight is carried safely.
Service in Every Segment
For women, service means creating pathways to independence. Through DFCC Aloka, more than 100,000 women have gained access to credit, mentorship, and peer networks. For SMEs, it means more than financing. Through Vyapara Hamuwa and Thirasara Athwela, we sit down with entrepreneurs to strengthen skills, shape business models, and help build sustainable livelihoods.
For corporates, service is about precision, trust, and timely support. For MSMEs, it is about being present in the outstation provinces, not just Colombo, with officers who advise as much as they lend. For high-net-worth clients, service is embodied in DFCC Pinnacle – discretion, insight, and partnership when decisions matter most.
This is why at DFCC Bank, customer service is not a department. It is the entire business of banking.
Technology With a Pulse
Digital is often seen as the opposite of human. We see it differently. For us, technology is service with a pulse – designed to remove friction, not feeling.
DFCC ONE now onboards customers fully online, while DFCC iConnect gives corporates real-time command over liquidity and payments. DFCC MySpace extends service through cash recycling and cheque deposit machines, yet never without human guidance close by. Artificial intelligence is already shaping underwriting and fraud detection, but always to sharpen, never to replace, human judgement.
Because service is not in the code. It is in the care with which code is written, deployed, and explained to those who use it.
A Culture That Serves
Behind every product, platform, and promise are 2,500 plus employees who carry DFCC Bank’s values into the everyday. Trained at the Learning Academy, guided by the PACCE values of Passion, Authenticity, Courage, Collaboration, and Excellence, they embody service as responsibility.
Our service record is not just long. It is unblemished. When you bank with DFCC Bank, you know we act with your best interests in mind, even when it means saying no. Because the role of a responsible bank is not only to enable, but also to guide, protect and thereby, serve.
Service as the Hard Truth
Customer service is not the soft side of banking. It is the hard truth. It is what earns deposits, secures loyalty, builds reputation, and sustains growth. It is why customers trust DFCC Bank with their money, their futures, and their dreams.
At DFCC Bank, we acknowledge that customer service is the way we live, the way we lead, and the way we grow. Because in the end, a bank is not remembered for the size of its balance sheet. It is remembered for the service it provides wholeheartedly – to people, to businesses, and, to a nation.
About DFCC Bank
DFCC Bank PLC, established in 1955 and listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange since 1956, is one of Sri Lanka’s leading financial institutions. Regulated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and rated A (lka) by Fitch Ratings, the Bank offers a comprehensive portfolio of retail, corporate, and SME banking services, along with treasury, investment, and trade finance solutions.
With customer centricity and sustainable innovation at its core, DFCC Bank delivers seamless and secure banking experiences, which include digital platforms like DFCC MySpace, and through a network of 133 branches and access to over 6,000 ATMs via the LankaPay network.
A recognised leader in sustainable finance and renewable energy initiatives, DFCC Bank is committed to reducing environmental impact and fostering long-term economic resilience.
