Combank first to provide tokenised Mastercard Payment Gateway Services in SL

• Signs on Takas.lk as first merchant to be integrated with MPGS

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon in collaboration with Mastercard International has introduced payment processing through Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS) in Sri Lanka, and has integrated Takas.lk as the first merchant to use this service.

The first and only bank to offer MPGS in the country, Commercial Bank now provides the merchants a secure, cost-effective way to perform card-on-file transactions through tokenisation, keeping sensitive card details away from merchant’s systems. This unique feature that allows customers to perform one-click online purchases is fully compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) requirements.

Tokenisation enables merchants to store the tokenised card number in their systems reducing the risk of exposing actual card numbers. The customers are required to enter the card details (card number, expiry date and cardholder verification value) only on the very first occasion they make a purchase through the website. With this solution, customers of Takas.lk are now able to perform repetitive purchases without having to re-enter card details for such transactions.

The tokenisation feature could be enabled by integrating a simple application programming interface (API) into the merchant’s checkout page/payment page, adding security while maintaining flexibility and control. When new payment cards are authorised, they are assigned a unique, configurable security token which is shared with the merchant whilst the sensitive card data is stored securely in Mastercard’s encrypted database. When merchants use the token for transactions, the gateway associates the token with the card number and submits it for authorisation and for subsequent settlement.

Other benefits of using MPGS include access to a comprehensive set of fraud mitigation tools; support to both ‘Mastercard SecureCode’ and ‘Verified by Visa’ 3D secure authentication solutions. MPGS also supports device optimised payment screens which are designed provide a seamless experience to users of various devices.

Commenting on this launch, Commercial Bank Chief Operating Officer S. Renganathan said: “Commercial Bank is proud to be the first bank to introduce this state-of-the-art technology to Sri Lankan consumers together with Mastercard. The bank always strives to introduce technology that matters in the lives of customers and we are confident this technology will significantly enhance the online shopping experience of Takas.lk customers.”

Takas.lk Co-Founder/CEO Lahiru Pathmalal said: “Takas.lk is one of the top e-Commerce companies in Sri Lanka because of our emphasis on customer service and our technological edge over everyone else. I believe the ability for us to do one-click in Sri Lanka will enhance the customer experience in a most positive way. Being the first to integrate one-click at this scale is also a testimony to our fully in-house technology team. We are very pleased to have partnered with Commercial Bank to deliver this product to the market.”