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

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 fulfil both issuer and acquirer functionalities of LankaPay Debit cards. 

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.

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. 

People’s Bank Chairman Sujeewa Rajapakse said: “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 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. 

Thanks to this partnership LankaPay Debit cards will be accepted overseas through JCB network. JCB is one of the six members of the EMVCo alliance. EMV is a registered trademark in the US and other countries and an unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC.

LankaPay’s quest as the country’s national payment network has been to minimise the cost structure within the financial sector through a common infrastructure thereby reducing the cost to the banks, customers, and the country as a whole. LankaPay cards will route all domestic transactions locally and only overseas transactions will be routed via the JCB International network. 

This initiative will ensure that no foreign exchange outflow takes place for any local transaction unlike in the case of using other international card schemes. This could potentially save the country a large amount of foreign exchange for domestic/local transactions from the use of debit/credit cards issued under other international card schemes.

Peoples’ Bank has the country’s largest customer base of over 14.5 million customers and also the largest branch network of 743 physical contact points to serve them. The bank also provides its services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year via its fully digital Self-Banking Units amounting over 280 across the island. 

The bank also has played a pivotal role in taking digital banking benefits to the masses and thereby has positioned itself as the leading digital banking service provider in the country.

People’s Bank Chairman Sujeewa Rajapakse presented First People’s LankaPay debit

card to the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka Chairman, Senior Professor

Sampath Amaratunge at an event held at People’s Bank Head office.

People’s Bank Acting CEO/General Manager Clive Fonseka, Central Bank Director Payments and Settlements Vasantha Alwis, LankaClear Chairman Dr. Kenneth De Zilwa, GM/ CEO Channa De Silva, Consultant to JCB International (for Sri Lanka) Lakshman Liyanage, People’s Bank Deputy General Manager (Payment, Process Management and  Quality Assurance) Nilmini Premalal, Chief Information Officer Dhammika Dasa, Head of Marketing Nalaka Wijayawardana, Head of Cards Jayanath Dias, and other officials were presented at the event.