From left - Mr. Chirath Samarasekara, Manager – Card Promotions, Loyalty & Product Strategy, Sampath Bank; Mr. Darshin Pathinayake, Head of Card Centre, Sampath Bank PLC; Mr. Rakhil Fernando, Managing Director, Daraz; Mr.  Kusal De Silva, Assistant General Manager, Operations & Card Centre, Sampath Bank PLC; Ms. Muditha Premarathne, Chief Commercial Officer, Daraz; Mr. Dulika Jayamanne, Head of Partnerships, Daraz; Mr. Sandamina Rajapaksha, Manager (Prepayment), Daraz and Mr. Nimesh Dassanayake, Junior Executive (Partnerships), Daraz

SampathCards announced that it has won the award for the ‘Highest Revenue Generating Banking Partner of the Year’ at the Daraz Seller Summit 2020, conducted by Sri Lanka’s largest online marketplace Daraz, which is backed by global e-commerce giant, the Alibaba Group. 

The awards seek to felicitate the best performing sellers on Daraz, as well as payment/banking partners who played a pivotal in the company’s success. SampathCards won this accolade for generating the highest revenue in a year by a single card partner, a significant achievement considering that the Bank began this year’s promotional activities with Daraz recently.

The bank ascribed its remarkable success in such a short period to its targeted customer awareness drive across multiple mediums, coupled with attractive discounts and the best deals on 0% interest instalment plans. SampathCards will continue to offer these benefits at Daraz ensuring safe and convenient online payment facility. 

Now in its 2nd year of partnering with Daraz to encourage and reward the use of e-commerce platforms and digital payments, this is one of several key initiatives taken by Sampath Bank to improve the digital financial inclusivity of the people of this country. 

Mr. Rakhil Fernando, Managing Director, Daraz (right) handing over the award to Mr. Kusal De Silva, Assistant General Manager, Operations & Card Centre, Sampath Bank PLC

Earlier this year, Sampath Bank partnered with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to develop a Blockchain technology based shared Know-Your-Customer platform together with the University of Colombo School of Computing; became one of the country’s first Payment Exchange Name (PEN) issuer and acquirer banks, thus facilitating a simpler method of conducting online transactions; and just recently partnered with LankaClear to introduce ‘LANKAQR,’ a common Quick Response (QR) code standard for the country, at the ‘Rata Puraama LANKAQR’ (Taking LANKAQR to the entire nation) event organised by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to facilitate speedy, safe, low-cost digital payments to any merchant, especially small and medium enterprises.

Sampath Bank is a 100% local bank that has deeply rooted itself in the lives of the people of Sri Lanka. Established in 1987, the bank has become a state-of-the-art financial institution that continues to be a market leader today thanks to its constant innovation and customer focused approach to business. It has introduced many firsts to the Sri Lankan banking sector including introducing ATMs to Sri Lanka, extended banking hours and slip-less banking to name a few. As part of its visionary 2020 approach, the bank is steadily transforming itself into a ‘Tech Company engaged in banking,’ from the traditional approach of a bank engaged in technology.