Channa De Silva appointed adviser to FASL

Channa De Silva

Channa De Silva was recently appointed as an adviser to the Fintech Association of Sri Lanka (FASL). De Silva is the General Manager/CEO of LankaClear which is on behalf of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), spearheading to create a Cashless Sri Lanka. 

De Silva, an ICT industry veteran counts nearly 30 years of experience encompassing a spectrum of industries and has served in several leading multinational and local organisations. He has been the driving force behind the innovative payment solutions introduced by LankaClear.

LankaClear as the operator of Sri Lanka’s national payment network – LankaPay, has been in the forefront in revolutionising the country’s banking and financial services industry by keeping the elements ‘innovation’ and advanced ‘technology’ at its core. A few of the key services offered via the LankaPay network are JustPay, Lanka QR, National Card Scheme, Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System, Common ATM Switch, Common Electronic Fund Transfer Switch, Cheque Imaging and Truncation System and Common POS Switch.  

De Silva is a member of the National Payment Council of CBSL and is also the Chairman of the Marketing Committee appointed by the CBSL to promote digital payment products consisting of marketing heads of all licenced commercial banks. He is also a Board member of Sri Lanka CERT | CC, which is the primary organisation responsible for cyber security in Sri Lanka.  

FASL is an MoU-signed partner of the Fintech Associations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Israel, etc. FASL was a supporter institution for various summits in the region including ‘Finners City Summit 2018’ in Shanghai; ‘Chain Plus: Asia-Pacific Blockchain New Finance Summit 2019’ in Singapore; ‘Block Plus Summit – Future of Fintech’ in Vietnam; ‘India Fintech Award – IFTA 2019’ in Mumbai, ‘Fintech Galaxy Awards’ in Dubai and The Asian Banker’s ‘Finance Sri Lanka 2019’ in Colombo. FASL was a regional co-organiser of the ‘Asia Smart App Awards’ at Cyberport, Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020.

FASL recently signed an MoU with the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) to collaborate on the Application Programming Interface Exchange (APIX), a global fintech platform. AFIN is a Singapore-based not-for-profit organisation founded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the ASEAN Bankers Association (ABA) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).