The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has enabled Senkadagala Finance PLC to become the first finance company in Sri Lanka to activate EMV 3DS fraud prevention technology in the authentication of Visa card transactions of the latter’s customers.

Commercial Bank has been extending card services to other local banks and finance companies via ‘ComBank Gold net’, a product the bank introduced in 2007.

With the activation of Visa Secure, built on EMVCo’s 3DS 2.0 protocol, users of debit cards issued by Senkadagala Finance will be provided the additional assurance of the technology’s sophisticated OTP (One Time Password) methodology that ensures customer convenience and advanced security, the Bank said. This is the first instance of Commercial Bank enabling 3DS services for an associate card issuer.

EMV 3D Secure is a global protocol specification released by EMVCo. It offers risk-based authentication and frictionless processing, further reducing the possibilities of e-commerce frauds and authentication failures. Commercial Bank was the first bank in Sri Lanka to deploy the technology in collaboration with Visa for authenticating payments made by credit, debit and pre-paid cards issued by the Bank.

This authentication process involves the merchant sending certain data needed to validate a transaction to the card issuer. The Bank has the capability to enable low-risk purchases to be completed through the frictionless flow, facilitating speedy authentication by reducing page redirects and entering the information before payment. Potentially risky purchases on the other hand, will prompt cardholders to complete additional authentication through SMS, security questions and other mechanisms such as emails in order to avoid fraud and validate the transaction.

Incorporated in 1968, Senkadagala Finance has grown significantly over the past 50 years, and now operates an island-wide network of 100 branches and employs approximately 800 people. As a Listed Licensed Finance Company, the company operates under the purview of Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Colombo Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka.

Commercial Bank is one of Sri Lanka’s leading financial institutions in introducing state-of-the-art payment card technology and new digital experiences to its customers. The Bank continues to make significant investments in new technology that facilitate customers’ financial transactions with better security and convenience. Commercial Bank offers a wide range of card products to its cardholders as well as to merchants for making payments effectively, conveniently and securely.

Commercial Bank is Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon neutral bank, the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 11 years consecutively. It is the largest lender to Sri Lanka’s SME sector and is a leader in digital innovation in the country’s Banking sector. The Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake.