CB renews talks with PayPal

• Top PayPal official based in India to visit SL soon

By Nishel Fernando 
A top PayPal official based in India is expected to visit Sri Lanka shortly to resume discussions to open up the global payment platform’s  inward payment services to the country after the Central Bank (CB) re-established its links  with Paypal. 

“We were recently able to get in touch with a PayPal representative in Singapore through the support of the Prime Minister’s Office and Sri Lankan embassy in Singapore. With this link, we have been able to get  re-connected with the responsible PayPal officer based in India again,” Central Bank (CB), Director Payments and Settlements Department, D. Kumaratunge revealed. 
He was speaking at a webinar organised by Lanka Training and Education Academy (Guarantee) Limited last saturday. 

Kumaratunge said that the representative from  PayPal  India indicated that he intends to visit the country and meet key State officials,  once the current COVID-19 pandemic dilutes.
“I also informed them that we are even ready to hold discussions online. 

Our hope is to get this service as soon as possible,” he added.

The PayPal  India Office had recently become unresponsive to CB’s regular updates, which prompted the CB to reach the Paypal’s regional headquarters in Singapore. 

The CB started exploring the possibility of opening up inward flows of payments to Sri Lanka in 2015, and pledged to provide regulatory space for it. 

Kumaratunge noted that during his tenure, he has made over 13 requests to extend inward payment services to the country.

Although PayPal is yet to formally notify Sri Lanka the reason for the delay in extending inward payment services, as per unofficial channels, the country’ scale has been cited as the reason for delay. 

The inward money transferring services of PayPal is expected to facilitate the e-market place enabling Sri Lankan brands, entrepreneurs and companies to have more opportunities in the global marketplace. PayPal had more than 305 million active registered user accounts at the end of 2019 financial year.