People’s Bank becomes first to issue and acquire LankaPay Debit card

Chairman of People’s Bank Sujeewa Rajapakse presenting the first People’s LankaPay debit card to the Chairman of the University Grants Commission Senior Professor Sampath Amaratunge at People’s Bank Head office in Colombo 2. Chairman of LankaClear Dr. Kenneth De Zilwa, Acting Chief Executive Officer/ General Manager of People’s Bank Clive Fonseka, Director, Payments and Settlements Department of Central Bank Vasantha Alwis, GM/ CEO of LankaClear Channa De Silva and other officials at the launch.

People’s Bank has stepped forward once again to strengthen Sri Lanka’s economy by saving valuable foreign exchange via a partnership with LankaPay to issue debit cards under the National Card Scheme (NCS).

With this initiative, People’s Bank became the first bank in the country to simultaneously fulfill both issuer and acquirer functionalities of LankaPay Debit cards. People’s Bank Chairman Sujeewa Rajapakse stated “As a nation-minded entity, we are delighted to be a part of this national initiative, which saves valuable foreign exchange for the country in this hour of need. As the leader in introducing cutting-edge technology to the nation, we are confident that this solution will pave the way for many more futuristic value additions in the near future”.

People’s LankaPay debit card provides customers with a range of benefits including the lowest ATM withdrawal fees of Rs 15 per transaction via other bank ATMs. Customers can also use this Debit card for Point of Sales (POS) transactions at over 42,000 terminals island-wide. Increased usage of these cards would result in bringing down the current merchant commission (MDR) of around 3-3.5% to a much lower 1%, which will make card transactions more affordable, especially to SME merchants.

This benefit is expected to be passed down to the customers as the smallest merchants currently add the MDR to the value of the goods/services, which has been a primary reason for the slower penetration of card payments in the country.

People’s Bank’s Acting CEO/GM Clive Fonseka, said “This is yet another perfect example of how modern technology can be used to offer viable and practical solutions that provide true value to the general public. Such achievements further re-affirms People’s Bank’s objective of becoming the country’s leader in the use of technology for the benefit of everyone.”

Under the guidance of the Central Bank, LankaPay launched the National Card Scheme in partnership with JCB International – an International Card Scheme headquartered in Japan, which is present in many territories including China, India, Indonesia and Thailand with over 150 million cardholders and over 41 million merchant points worldwide.

Another unique feature of the People’s LankaPay Debit cards issued this time is the dual functionality it holds where there is a stored value element in addition to the debit card feature within the same card. Partnering with the Central Bank, the Ministry of Transport, the National

Transport Commission (NTC), Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) and LankaPay, People’s Bank has already started a pilot project in the Southern expressway to issue transit cards. Using this capability, commuters will be able to pay their transport fare by simply tapping their cards on the ticket machine available with the bus conductor. After the successful pilot run, People’s Bank will further expand this Transit Card national initiative to other routes as well.