Wednesday Aug 27, 2025
Wednesday Aug 27, 2025
Wednesday, 27 August 2025 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
In the bustling streets of Colombo, a small garment manufacturer still conducts most transactions in cash, despite owning a smartphone more powerful than the computers that once ran entire banks. Across the city, a FinTech start-up has developed innovative credit scoring algorithms but struggles to access the customer data that could make their solution transformative. Meanwhile, a major bank has invested millions in establishing secure digital infrastructure that while effective, still remains siloed mainly from the broader financial ecosystem.
This is the paradox facing Sri Lanka’s FinTech landscape: abundant individual capabilities existing within a fragmented system that prevents collective progress. The nation possesses all the foundational elements for digital financial transformation—robust banking networks, accelerating smartphone adoption, a digitally literate youth population, and policy frameworks signalling digital ambition. Yet the ecosystem remains stubbornly disconnected, with each player operating in isolation rather than as part of a coordinated value creation network.
Today, the average Sri Lankan completes fewer than 20 digital transactions annually, while citizens in India have surpassed 60 transactions per capita. Even smaller Southeast Asian economies are advancing rapidly on digital identity, open banking, and real-time settlements. What distinguishes these success stories isn’t superior technology or larger investments—it’s the presence of functioning ecosystems where regulators, banks, start-ups, capital providers, and academia operate in concert rather than silos.
Re-energising Sri Lanka’s FinTech ecosystem
The Sri Lanka FinTech Summit 2025, convening September 24–25 at BMICH Colombo, emerges from this recognition as something fundamentally different from traditional industry gatherings. Under the strategic leadership of HNB PLC Managing Director/CEO Damith Pallewatte and co-chaired by TECXA MD/CEO Dr. Kumudu Megasooriya, and FinTech Forum Sri Lanka Chairman Channa de Silva, the summit represents a paradigm shift from showcase to coordination mechanism—a deliberate effort to build year-round momentum around a unified, accountable, and investable FinTech ecosystem.
“We possess the data, platforms, and talent necessary for transformation,” explains Damith Pallewatte. “What’s been missing is strategic alignment. This summit represents our collective opportunity to move beyond aspiration toward coordinated execution—with clear ownership structures, measurable outcomes, and sustained continuity.”
This vision reflects a mature understanding of how digital financial ecosystems develop. For decades, Sri Lankan banks viewed FinTechs as existential threats—lean, fast-moving entities poised to disrupt traditional finance. That adversarial relationship has evolved into something more sophisticated and ultimately more productive. Regulatory constraints, capital requirements, and public trust considerations have revealed the limits of what FinTechs can achieve independently. Simultaneously, banks have recognised that agility, innovation velocity, and customer-centric service delivery represent strengths the sector cannot afford to ignore.
The synthesis creates unprecedented value. Traditional financial institutions contribute regulatory expertise, capital adequacy, compliance infrastructure, and established customer relationships. FinTech innovators bring technological sophistication, service delivery reimagination, and a willingness to challenge conventional approaches. Together, they can create systems that are simultaneously safe and transformative—but only when collaboration has structure, accountability, and shared strategic direction.
Establishing the architecture of systemic change
The summit’s operational framework reflects this system’s thinking approach. Rather than conventional panel discussions followed by networking sessions, each plenary feed directly into specialised workstreams addressing specific ecosystem barriers: SME access to finance, blockchain regulatory pilots, KYC interoperability, cross-border payments, and digital credit scoring integration.
This structure ensures that conversations translate into actionable outcomes. Every strategic recommendation emerges with defined ownership, implementation timelines, and accountability mechanisms. Progress tracking occurs through public dashboards, creating transparency and maintaining momentum into next year’s summit.
“We have collectively built world-class core financial services infrastructure in the country for fast, secure and reliable digital payments in partnership with members of the Fintech Forum, Sri Lanka such as banks, NBFIs and fintech companies. The growth of digital payments has seen a significant increase over the years. But true transformation requires shared ownership and follow-through. This summit moves us from discussion to delivery, creating the structures needed to convert ambition into measurable outcomes that bring progress,” Channa de Silva explained.
Accordingly, the summit’s strategic agenda will centre on five interlocking pillars designed to break down the barriers that have long held Sri Lanka’s FinTech ecosystem in silos.
1.The primary focus will be on accelerating SME financial inclusion through lending models that dispense with traditional collateral requirements, thereby opening new channels of growth capital for previously underserved businesses.
2.Concurrently, regulators and industry leaders will discuss pilot blockchain programs and efforts to establish regulatory sandboxes—carefully calibrated environments that encourage technological experimentation while safeguarding systemic stability.
3.A third priority is the creation of a truly interoperable infrastructure, standardising KYC procedures and instituting real-time data-exchange protocols so that customer onboarding becomes seamless across banks, FinTechs and service providers.
4.Fourth, the summit seeks to modernise Sri Lanka’s cross-border payments by deploying efficient, cost-effective transaction systems that elevate Sri Lanka from peripheral player to regional financial hub.
5.Finally, by integrating alternative data sources with AI-driven scoring mechanisms, organisers aim to expand credit access without diluting risk-management standards, ensuring that intelligence-driven credit becomes a reliable pillar of the national economy.
“Our goal is to inspire change, and implement tangible operational transformation. This summit initiates systematic problem-solving across institutional boundaries, creating sustained collaborative momentum that extends far beyond September,” Pallewatte said.
Global knowledge sharing and integration
The most significant opportunity lies in human capital development. Currently, fewer than 10% of technology and finance graduates enter the FinTech or start-up sector—a fundamental misalignment between educational outcomes and economic transformation needs. The summit will table a comprehensive academic-industry collaboration framework designed to bridge this gap through:
This approach recognises that sustainable ecosystem development requires not just technological infrastructure, but human infrastructure—professionals who understand both traditional financial principles and emerging digital possibilities.
The summit’s international dimension ensures Sri Lanka’s development incorporates proven strategies from leading digital finance hubs. Over 150 speakers include Monetary Authority of Singapore Chief FinTech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty, alongside leaders from Africa’s mobile money revolution, Southeast Asia’s super-app ecosystems, and the Gulf’s digital banking transformation.
This global knowledge transfer prevents reinventing solved problems while ensuring local solutions address specific market characteristics and regulatory requirements. The goal isn’t to copy international models, but to adapt successful principles to Sri Lankan realities.
Measurable transformation targets
The summit’s success metrics align with Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy Strategy 2030, which envisions a $ 15 billion digital economy contributing 12% of GDP. Specific transformation indicators include:
These targets reflect an understanding that transformation occurs through accumulated systemic improvements rather than isolated breakthrough moments.
Turning ripple effects into waves of growth
The summit’s ambition reaches far beyond reforming financial services; it aspires to catalyse a sweeping digital acceleration across Sri Lanka’s entire economy. By achieving seamless interoperability between payment systems, enabling secure data exchange across institutions, streamlining SMEs’ access to growth capital and extending universal financial inclusion, Sri Lanka can move from behind the pack to emerge as a regional lead in this ambitious global movement.
Such transformation creates cascading benefits. Efficient digital payments reduce transaction costs for businesses. Improved access to credit enables entrepreneurship and expansion. Standardised KYC processes minimise compliance burdens. Cross-border payment efficiency attracts international business. Enhanced financial inclusion brings previously excluded populations into the formal economy.
The garment manufacturer that still operates primarily in cash gains access to digital supply chain financing. The FinTech start-up’s innovative algorithms find application across multiple financial institutions. The bank’s digital infrastructure becomes part of an interconnected ecosystem that serves customers more effectively than any single institution could achieve alone.
Sri Lanka’s digital financial renaissance begins with recognition that transformation is not a destination but a process—one that requires every stakeholder to see their success as inseparable from the ecosystem’s collective advancement. The summit provides the framework. The real work begins the day after it ends,” Dr.Kumudu Megasooriya said.
The message is clear: the summit may set the stage, but progress depends on what we do next—on decisions made in boardrooms, code written in start-ups, and partnerships forged across sectors.
