Independent Assurance Report – Sustainability

INDEPENDENT ASSURANCE REPORT TO BANK OF CEYLON

We have been engaged by the Directors of Bank of Ceylon (“the Bank”) to provide reasonable assurance and limited assurance in respect of the Sustainability Indicators as identified below for the year ended 31 December 2022. The Sustainability Indicators are included in the Bank of Ceylon Integrated Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2022 (the “Report”).

The Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators covered by our reasonable assurance engagement are:

The Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators covered by our limited assurance engagement are:

Our conclusions

Our conclusion has been formed on the basis of, and is subject to, the matters outlined in this report. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusions.

Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators

In our opinion, in all material respects, the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators, as defined above, for the year ended 31 December 2022, in all material respects, has been prepared and presented by the management of Bank of Ceylon in accordance with the Consolidated Set of Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards Guidelines.

Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators

Based on the evidence we obtained from the assurance procedures performed, as described below we are not aware of any material misstatements that causes us to believe that the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators, as defined above, for the year ended 31 December 2022, have not in all material respects, been prepared and presented by the management of Bank of Ceylon in accordance with the Consolidated Set of Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards Guidelines.

 

Management's Responsibility

Management is responsible for the preparation and presentation of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators and the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators in accordance with the Consolidated Set of Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards Guidelines.

These responsibilities include establishing such internal controls as management determines are necessary to enable the preparation of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators and the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators that are free from material misstatement whether due to fraud or error.

Management is responsible for preventing and detecting fraud and for identifying and ensuring that the Bank complies with laws and regulations applicable to its activities.

Management is also responsible for ensuring that staff involved with the preparation and presentation of the description and Report are properly trained, information systems are properly updated and that any changes in reporting encompass all significant business units.

Our responsibility

Our responsibility is to express a reasonable assurance conclusion on the Bank’s preparation and presentation of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators and a limited assurance conclusion on the preparation and presentation of the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators included in the Report, as defined above.

We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with Sri Lanka Standard on Assurance Engagements SLSAE 3000: Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information (SLSAE 3000) issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.

We have complied with the independence and other ethical requirements of the Code of Ethics issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.

SLSAE 3000 requires that we plan and perform the engagement to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators are free from material misstatement and limited assurance about whether the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators are free from material misstatement.

Our firm applies Sri Lanka Standard on Quality Management (SLSQM) 1, which requires the firm to design, implement and operate a system of quality management including policies or procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Reasonable assurance over Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators

The procedures selected in our reasonable assurance engagement depend on our judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators whether due to fraud or error.

In making those risk assessments, we have considered internal control relevant to the preparation and presentation of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators in order to design assurance procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purposes of expressing a conclusion as to the effectiveness of the Bank's internal control over the preparation and presentation of the Report.

Our engagement also included assessing the appropriateness of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators, the suitability of the criteria, being the Consolidated Set of Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards Guidelines, used by the Bank in preparing and presenting the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators within the Report, obtaining an understanding of the compilation of the financial and non-financial information to the sources from which it was obtained,

 

evaluating the reasonableness of estimates made by the Bank, and re-computation of the calculations of the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators.

Limited assurance on the Assured Sustainability Indicators

Our limited assurance engagement on the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators consisted of making enquiries, primarily of persons responsible for the preparation of the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators, and applying analytical and other procedures, as appropriate. These procedures included:

• interviews with senior management and relevant staff at corporate and selected site level concerning sustainability strategy and policies for material issues, and the implementation of these across the business;
• enquiries of management to gain an understanding of the Bank’s processes for determining material issues for the Bank’s key stakeholder groups;
• enquiries of relevant staff at corporate and selected site level responsible for the preparation of the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators;
• enquiries about the design and implementation of the systems and methods used to collect and report the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators, including the aggregation of the reported information;
• comparing the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators to relevant underlying sources on a sample basis to determine whether all the relevant information has been appropriately included in the Report;
• reading the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators presented in the Report to determine whether they are in line with our overall knowledge of, and experience with, the sustainability performance of the Bank;
• reading the remainder of the Report to determine whether there are any material misstatements of fact or material inconsistencies based on our understanding obtained as part of our assurance engagement.

The procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement vary in nature and timing from, and are less in extent than for, a reasonable assurance engagement, and consequently the level of assurance obtained in a limited assurance engagement is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed. Accordingly, we do not express a reasonable assurance conclusion on the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators.

Purpose of our report

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, this assurance report has been prepared for the Bank for the purpose of assisting the Directors in determining whether the Bank's Reasonable and Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators are prepared and presented in accordance with the Consolidated Set of Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards Guidelines and for no other purpose or in any other context.

Restriction of use of our report

This report has been prepared for the Directors of Bank of Ceylon for the purpose of providing an assurance conclusion on the Reasonable Assurance Sustainability Indicators and the Limited Assurance Sustainability Indicators included in the Bank of Ceylon Integrated Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2022 and may not be suitable for another purpose. We disclaim any assumption of responsibility for any reliance on this report, to any person other than the Directors of Bank of Ceylon, or for any other purpose than that for which it was prepared.

 

Chartered Accountants

Colombo
25 April 2023