DFCC Bank Turns 70: A Legacy of Powering Progress, A Future Rooted in Sustainability

As DFCC Bank marks 70 years of operations in 2025, it does so with a legacy steeped in national development and an eye firmly fixed on Sri Lanka's sustainable future.

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Founded in 1955 as the country's first development finance institution, DFCC Bank played an instrumental role in industrialising a newly independent nation. Seventy years later, the Bank is reshaping that legacy for a new era of climate action, innovation, and inclusive progress.

Pioneering Sri Lanka's Green Journey

Before ESG became a global imperative, DFCC Bank laid the groundwork for Sri Lanka's non-conventional renewable energy landscape. In 1996, it financed the country's first grid-connected, private sector mini-hydro power project — an initiative that became a cornerstone in the island's clean energy evolution. This was soon followed by a leadership role in managing the World Bank and Global Environment Facility's "Energy Services Delivery" programme in 1997 and later the "Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development" project in 2003. These early initiatives catalysed rural transformation and built credibility for clean energy investments nationwide.

DFCC Bank's commitment only grew stronger. It financed Sri Lanka's first private sector wind power project in 2010 and the first grid-scale solar power plant in 2016. By 2017, the Bank was behind a ground-breaking rooftop solar aggregator project, and in 2021, it co-financed the nation's first waste-to-energy project. Each of these projects contributed to a national ecosystem for renewable power one project, one megawatt at a time.

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