150,000 new ePassbook App downloads in 6 months
New app downloads of Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s ePassbook has increased by 150,000 in just six months after self-registration was permitted via a recent upgrade, Sri Lanka’s largest private bank reports.
The first digital passbook in Sri Lanka’s and South Asia’s banking industry, ComBank ePassbook has users in more than 100 countries who now log in at the rate of 20 per second, averaging more than 1,000 active users per minute, and has over 1 million customer registrations, the Bank said.
The ground-breaking app was upgraded recently with features including self-registration for personal accounts, real-time transaction notifications, and a biometric login feature that enables account holders to use the app via face ID and fingerprint, all of which significantly improved accessibility, versatility and security, enhancing user-autonomy and convenience.
The newly introduced self-registration option which is the main catalyst for the spike in downloads of the app is especially advantageous as it eliminates the need for account holders to visit their respective branches to activate the app. Another simultaneous upgrade made it possible for users to self-add, remove, or group Current Accounts, Savings Accounts, and Credit Cards in their ComBank ePassbook mobile application.
Future enhancements to the app will include the possibility of viewing unlimited transaction history, including unrealised cheques, account holds and the total overdraft limit for current accounts. The facility to view details of Fixed Deposit Accounts and Loans online, to keep track of details and operate the app in all three vernacular languages are also in the pipeline, the Bank said.
The ComBank ePassbook mobile application was introduced in 2016 as a pioneering product of Commercial Bank, revolutionising the concept of the “Passbook.” It is provided free of charge and provides instant access to the customer’s accounts through a smartphone, dispensing with the requirement of holding a physical passbook or obtaining any paid banking facility such as Online Banking or Mobile Banking for inquiry purposes.
The app provides access to details of savings, current, NRFC, RFC accounts, and Credit Cards on Android with Google Play and iOS powered mobile devices and acts as a single repository for multiple accounts enrolled by an account holder, with the capability to view each account separately.
Users of the app may also label different accounts with preferred names or codes such as salary, petty cash, savings, entertainment and such, for easy reference.
At present the app enables account holders to track account balances and transactions of the past 30 days in real-time on their mobile phones or tabs from anywhere. The ComBank ePassbook app updates automatically whenever the user is online, the Bank said.
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 10 years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 268 branches and 887 ATMs in Sri Lanka.
Commercial 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.