The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has launched Mastercard Send™, the facility that leverages Mastercard’s global payment network and card products, to provide Sri Lankan Mastercard cardholders with a convenient, fast, safe and reliable way to effect cross-border, person-to-person money transfers.

The Mastercard Send solution requires receivers in Sri Lanka to only provide the number of their Commercial Bank Debit or Credit Card and the necessary personal information to senders outside the country. Senders can then transfer money via their Mastercard cards to families and friends in Sri Lanka. The funds will be remitted to the recipients’ Debit or Credit card accounts on the same day,and Commercial Bank customers will not be charged any service fee or currency exchange fees for this facility, the Bank said.

In addition, receivers can check on the status of the remittances via Commercial Bank’s Mobile Banking or other online channels, without the need to pay a visit to the Bank. 

These cross-border transactions will take place via Mastercard’s Global Treasury process which enables competitive cross-border card payment settlements in over 160 currencies.

Commenting on the launch of this facility in Sri Lanka, Commercial Bank’s Deputy General Manager Marketing Mr. Hasrath Munasinghe said: “Mastercard Send not only addresses Sri Lankan consumers’ need for quick, convenient and safe cross border remittances, but also provides customer banks with an efficient, cost-effective, multi-currency and multi-channel platform.This facility helps improve bank-card operation efficiency and customer experience.”

Notably, Commercial Bank was adjudged the ‘Most Innovative Business Partner in Sri Lanka’ for 2017 by Mastercard International for its innovative ideas around new segments, partnerships and technology, and its level of engagement with its customer base. The Bank issued the Mastercard Chip and PIN card for the first time in Sri Lanka in 2017, and was the first to introduce payment processing through Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS) in the country. MPGS provides customers with a secure, cost-effective way to perform card-on-file transactions through tokenisation.

Commercial Bank has also enabled MasterCard Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) acquiring for its point-of-sale (POS) machines to ensure that customers are not exposed to currency rate fluctuations till the time of settlement of transactions performed.

Headquartered in New York, Mastercard is a leading global payments and technology company that connects consumers, businesses, merchants, issuers and governments around the world, enabling them to use electronic forms of payment instead of cash and cheques.

The only Sri Lankan Bank to be ranked among the world’s top 1000 banks for eight years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 266 branches and 830 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won multiple international and local awards in 2016 and 2017 and over 30 international and local awards in 2018.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon and a Microfinance company in Nay PyiTaw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake