TLDR: Citizens Development Business Finance PLC (CDB) has received national acclaim for its innovative AI-powered credit decision-making system, securing a Silver award in the Digital Transformation Project of the Year Category at the CIMA – JXG Pinnacle Awards 2025. This marks the second significant national recognition for the in-house developed system, which enhances credit evaluation, promotes financial inclusion, and streamlines operations.
Citizens Development Business Finance PLC (CDB) continues to solidify its position as a leader in digital innovation, earning national recognition for its groundbreaking AI-powered credit decision-making system. The system recently secured a Silver award in the highly competitive Digital Transformation Project of the Year Category at the CIMA – JXG Pinnacle Awards 2025. This latest accolade follows a previous win at the National ICT Awards NBQSA 2024, underscoring the consistent excellence and transformative impact of CDB’s digital journey.
Developed entirely in-house, CDB’s award-winning system leverages direct API integration with CRIB data, providing real-time access to crucial credit information. By harnessing advanced AI algorithms, it meticulously evaluates a broad spectrum of data to generate highly accurate credit assessments. A key feature of the system is its AI-powered vehicle valuation module, which precisely determines the collateral value of vehicles—a vital component in vehicle-based credit decisions. The culmination of these capabilities is a credit decision-making model that is not only informed and swift but also remarkably reliable and grounded in robust asset understanding.
Director Business Operations, Dave De Silva, emphasized the strategic importance of this innovation, stating, “This AI model is an essential pillar of our future-forward credit assessment strategy. With AI evolving rapidly and competition intensifying across financial services, our aim is to deliver unmatched service through speed and precision in credit decision-making – setting new standards for customer experiences. Importantly, the system has been instrumental in the successful implementation of risk-based pricing, enabling data-driven differentiation of customer risk profiles – ensuring credit is priced accurately and fairly.”
General Manager Credit, Sudath Fernando, highlighted the tangible advantages over traditional manual approval methods. “We have seen improvements in credit quality, reduced default risk and expanded business capacity,” Fernando noted. He added, “With branch staff receiving credit decisions and recommended pricing on their mobile phones, they can now approve credit facilities virtually from wherever they are, under central oversight. This empowers our teams to make sound and consistent decisions, significantly reduces human bias and enhances compliance with regulatory standards.”
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The system’s ability to streamline credit evaluation, deepen financial inclusion, and reinforce CDB’s tech-first strategy positions the company at the forefront of digital transformation in Sri Lanka’s financial sector.
