Bank of Ceylon Pensioners’ Association- Uniting Pensioners’ From 1979

• Formed in the year 1979, with a group of about 150 Pensioners.
• Late Mr. Clarence Gunasekera was the first president.
• Late Mr. Sydney Fernando was the First Secretary.
• After the death of Mr. Sydney Fernando, Mr. Gordon Fernando was elected as the Secretary.
• Membership included Pensioners as well as Widows and Widowers of Pensioners. The total number now is over 8000.
• In 1987 the then Chairman of Bank of Ceylon attended the Annual General Meeting of the Association and since then The Chairman or aMember of the Board of Directors as his representative has attended the Annual General Meeting as the Chief Guest except on a very few instances.
• In 1986 Mr. Norman Waidyaratne the then Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who was at one time a staff member of the Bank attended the Annual General Meeting of the Association as the Chief Guest.
• The functions of the Association has been decentralized. There are 22 District / Province Associations affiliated to the main Association. Also, the Pensioners living abroad may have their own Associations. The constitution of the Association has provision to affiliate the Associations abroad as well. The Colombo District Association which has the largest membership of over 2000 members and the second largest district of Gamapaha are further decentralized to 10 Divisions each. Similarly Kurunegala District also has a decentralized entity.
• There are many Social, Religious, and other activities conducted by the Association like Cultural and Sports festivals, Get – togethers, Pilgrimages, leisure trips within the Island and abroad. They are conducted by the District / Province Associations for the benefit of the members.
• Association raised funds and utilizing own funds assisted twice the distressed members affected by floods and landslidesby providing relief.
  There are activities conducted for the benefit of the public as well. The Association has constructed 5 Houses for the needy families in the Serunuwara area in the Eastern Province.
• The Association operates Two Death Donation Schemes with the funds collected from the members. One for the Pensioners where a sum of Rs. 80,000/= is paid on the death of a member to the nominee or the heirs. A sum of Rs.40,000/= is paid to the member if the spouse of the member predeceases him / her.
• The second Death Donation Fund was created last year (2013) for the Widows and Widowers ofour members with a sum of Rs.1 Million donated by the Association. Initially a sum of Rs.20,000/= was paid and now Rs. 30,000 is paid on the death of a member to the nominee or the heirs.
• Every District / Province Association will have their Annual General Meeting in the First Quarter of the Year where the audited accounts are presented and adopted. The office bearers for the next year are elected at this meeting. One (1) representative for every twenty (20) members elected at the Annual General Meetings of the District / Province Associations will represent the General Council of the Association which will have its Annual General Meeting before the end of April every year.
• It is a well knit organization and functions as an extended family of the Bank. Members of the Association get involved in almost every activity of the Bank. They support the Branches in Deposit Mobilization, Recovery of Non Performing Advances Social and Religious activities.
• The constitution of the Association was revised incorporating the decentralized entities of the District Branches and the Death Donation Funds. It was approved at the Special General Meeting of the Association held on 2nd December 2017 to be effective from 1st January 2018.