Union Bank to launch fully digital experience in 2024

By Nishel Fernando

Union Bank of Colombo, led by Nepalese billionaire businessman Binod Chaudhary, is set to become Sri Lanka’s first bank offering a fully digital experience by March next year.

“By March, we will be ready with our full digital banking stack and proposition, positioning us as the first bank in the country with a complete digital offering,” said Union Bank of Colombo CEO Dilshan Rodrigo.

Rodrigo revealed that Union Bank is collaborating with Nepal’s Nabil Bank, controlled by Chaudhary Group, in this digitalisation journey.

“We’re projecting a tenfold growth in active customer adoption over the next two years. This is a stepping stone towards creating a marketplace, open banking, and a full digital banking proposition similar to Nabil Banks. We’ll continue to work closely with the teams at Nabil Bank to drive this initiative forward,” he stressed.

In 2023, Union Bank launched an ambitious project to upgrade its mobile app, UBgo, introducing cutting-edge features such as automated digital registration, enhanced security through biometrics, improved portfolio management, fund transfer and bill payment features, and debit and credit card management options. The bank re-launched the UBgo app last week with some of these upgrades.

Union Bank Vice President - Head of Retail Liability Products and Alternate Channels, Manisha Fernando, emphasised that the bank is focusing on ease of payments, registration, a 360-degree view of accounts (including investments, loans, and savings), and enabling payments for non-Union Bank customers through the app.
The next phase of the upgrade, scheduled for the end of this year, is expected to revolutionise Sri Lanka’s banking sector.

“We are incorporating account opening functions and enhanced payment options. These upgrades will revolutionise banking in Sri Lanka by enabling customers to use just one app for all their banking needs,” Fernando said.

He further outlined that UBgo aims to become a one-stop shop for banking, particularly leveraging AI.
“Our ultimate goal is AI-enhanced banking services. Everything will be AI-driven, offering a simple, one-stop shop for banking through a mobile app,” he added.

Speaking to Mirror Business, Rodrigo noted that Union Bank is unlikely to expand its physical branch network, as it already has strategically located branches across the island. As of the end of last financial year, Union Bank had 63 branches, 105 ATMs, and a 1,048-agent banking network.

In the early 1990s, Union Bank became the first bank in Sri Lanka to introduce internet banking, marking its early entry into the digital banking sphere.