The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has launched pre-paid cards that can be topped up with funds online and can be used for different or specific purposes while allowing their users to better manage spending and enjoy minimal exposure to risk.
Among the cards introduced to the market are a multi-purpose Spend Card that can be used by individuals to provide money for spending to family members, and a pre-paid Web Card for online transactions.
A pre-paid Spend Card can be obtained from any Commercial Bank branch or service point by depositing Rs 1,000 to a pre-paid account. Customers are required to complete the Bank’s standard KYC (know your customer) requirements and the cards can be used by topping them up or reloading via multiple channels including bank counters or through online banking. There is no annual fee for the card, which is valid for five years.
Available to residents of Sri Lanka, the card can be used for point-of-sale purchases locally and overseas, for online purchases and for cash withdrawals. This card has Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled Tap & Go technology and has the full functionality of a normal NFC debit card. It eliminates the need to carry large amounts of cash by the individual and allows secure and instant transactions.
The Bank said this card is an expedient and safer way of providing spending money to family members including children. The transaction details can be viewed through the web portal provided by the Bank.
Meanwhile, the ‘Prepaid Web Card’ launched by Commercial Bank is designed for customers who carry out regular online transactions and prefer to maintain a separate card for ease of monitoring their transactions.
This card can also be obtained at any branch of the Bank by submitting the necessary information for registration and making an initial deposit of Rs 1000. This card minimises the cardholder’s exposure to online fraud as the user can top up the required amounts periodically by visiting a branch of the Bank, or by reloading the card by transferring money from a current or savings account via ComBank Online.
The Web Card can be topped up or reloaded up to Rs 300,000 and enables the cardholders to control and monitor their online spending in a planned manner. It also eliminates the concern of security that most customers have in using their regular Credit or Debit cards for online transactions. Online transactions performed using this card are also supported with additional authentication where the cardholder needs to enter a one-time password to authorise the transaction. In order for this additional authentication to work, the merchant should support the 3D Secure protocol.
If customers want to withdraw the money reloaded to their cards, they can do so by visiting any ATM connected to the Visa network and using the given PIN numbers. Customers can monitor their transactions by logging in to the web portal hosted on the Bank’s website.
Commercial Bank cards are the fastest growing cards in Sri Lanka and enjoy market leadership in Credit and Debit Card cumulative point-of-sale usage. The Bank offers a variety of Credit Cards in the Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers of Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay Cards, as well as Visa Signature, World Mastercard, Visa Infinite, UnionPay Asia Prestige Platinum and UnionPay Asia Prestige Diamond Cards in the premium segment. The cards are equipped with ‘Tap’ n Go’ NFC technology and are backed by a strong NFC Point-of-Sale (POS) network.
The only Sri Lankan Bank to be ranked among the world’s top 1000 banks for nine years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 267 branches and 856 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank won over 40 international and local awards in 2018, has received more than 30 awards to date this year, and been ranked among the 10 Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka in 2019.