– Offers free hearing tests throughout March 

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s #1 connectivity provider, marks World Hearing Day 2026 by offering free hearing tests throughout March at the Ratmalana Audiology Centre (RAC), reaffirming its commitment to expanding access to hearing care services across Sri Lanka.

Aligned with the 2026 global theme, “From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children,” the initiative supports greater awareness of early detection and timely intervention, while making hearing screening services accessible to individuals of all ages. The programme is conducted in partnership with RAC, a collaborative project with the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind.

Free hearing tests will be available from 3rd to 31st March between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM. Screenings are open to the public, including both children and adults, particularly those who may have limited access to hearing healthcare services. Appointments can be scheduled by contacting 011 730 7308 or 077 394 5945.

Over the years, Dialog has invested more than Rs. 70 million in the establishment and ongoing enhancement of RAC, which was set up in 2007 to support students of the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind while extending services to the wider community. RAC provides free hearing assessments for individuals referred by Government ENT specialists, alongside speech and language therapy, hearing aid evaluation and fitting, and follow-up rehabilitation services.

Union Bank announced a milestone financial performance for the FY2025, emerging as one of the fastest-growing banks in the country complemented by a standout bottom-line performance with the group Profit Before All Taxes reaching LKR 2.2 Bn and doubling its Profit After Tax (PAT) to LKR 660 Mn highlighting the success of its strategic transformation plans.

The Bank’s Gross Income surged to LKR 18.2 Bn supported by a strengthened Net Interest Income (NII) of LKR 5, 638 Mn and a substantial Net Fee and Commission Income of LKR 1,545 Mn, reflecting a diversified and resilient revenue base.

The Net loan portfolio climbed by 36% to LKR 110.8 Bn, maintaining the aggressive momentum seen in the previous year where the Bank significantly outpaced industry averages. This expansion was complemented by a robust growth in the deposit base, which reached LKR 118.8 Bn a 15% increase, signaling deep-rooted public confidence and the success of the Bank’s energised, sales-driven culture. The Bank maintained a comfortable Total Capital Ratio of 13.2%, remaining well above regulatory requirements and ensuring a stable foundation for future lending. The Total Assets of the Group grew from LKR 155.6 Bn to LKR 184.8 Bn, a 19% growth. The Union Bank Group consists of UB Finance Plc and National Asset Management Limited.

Dinesh Weerakkody, Chairman of Union Bank, stated that the Bank’s 2025 performance reflects the strategic and structural transformation following the entry of its new investor. He noted that stronger governance, an improved financial position, and a sharper focus on core banking segments have positioned the Bank to deliver sustainable and resilient long-term value.

Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, announced that LB Finance PLC, one of Sri Lanka’s A- (lka) Fitch-rated non-bank financial institutions, has adopted Snowflake as the data foundation to accelerate its digital transformation journey. By modernizing and unifying its data ecosystem on the Snowflake platform, LB Finance has evolved its hybrid business model to offer a seamless experience for modern app and digital-first customers as they transition from physical branches to accessing financial services digitally.

As digital adoption expanded, LB Finance identified opportunities to enhance its on-premises data architecture to better support real-time analytics, AI workloads, and the increasing performance demands of its digital channels. The tightly coupled nature of compute and storage limited scalability and delayed access to timely insights, increasing reliance on IT teams for analytics. Scaling compute-intensive AI infrastructure also became increasingly complex and costly, highlighting the need for a modern, cloud-native platform.

In response to these evolving requirements, LB Finance selected Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud platform for its security, governance, and scalability, establishing a unified and future-ready data foundation. This approach has enabled the organization to operate as a real-time, insight-driven financial services provider, supporting AI-powered personalization and improved digital customer experiences.

Snowflake now serves as LB Finance’s single source of truth, providing enterprise-grade security, governance, and scalability across its data ecosystem. Altria Consulting, the implementation partner, helped LB Finance transition to Snowflake to run a broad range of workloads on a single, unified platform and eliminate silos between reporting, analytics, and AI. Today, the company’s enterprise data warehousing, regulatory reporting, digital channel analytics, customer 360 insights, and production AI models for credit risk, fraud detection, and personalization are powered by Snowflake. These capabilities have delivered measurable business impact. Data availability has shifted from batch-oriented processing to near real-time. Report generation time has dropped from hours to seconds during peak periods, and business users now access self-service insights without IT intervention. At the customer level, this translates into faster loan approvals, fully digital onboarding journeys, personalized product offerings, and credit decisions delivered significantly faster, in many cases within minutes.