BOC signs agreement with LankaClear to be settlement bank for USD Online and USD Draft System

Bank of Ceylon General Manager K.E.D. Sumanasiri and LankaClear (Pvt.) Ltd General Manager/CEO Channa De Silva exchange the MoU (centre) in the presence of (from left) Assistant Manager Domestic Foreign Currency Clearing Sanjeewa Premarathna, Manager Trade Promotion Gihan Amunugama, Assistant General Manager International Ranjith Ruwanpathirana, LankaClear (Pvt.) Ltd Chief Operating Officer Dinuka Perera, Senior Deputy General Manager Corporate and Offshore Banking W.N.P. Surawimala, Deputy General Manager International, Treasury and Investment R.M.N. Jeewantha, Assistant General Manager Offshore Banking Manjula Herath and Senior Manager Correspondent Banking Prabhani Rodrigo

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) is proud to announce being appointed as the settlement bank by LankaClear, for its inter-bank US Dollar Online Payment System (USD Online) and US Dollar Draft Online Image Transfer System (UITS). This selection was made through a competitive bidding process.

The agreement was signed on October 12, 2021 at the bank’s head office by the two parties.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) along with other licensed public and private commercial banks operating in Sri Lanka own LankaClear, which is the operator of the national interbank payment network in the island.

Established in 2002 as the most successful public-private-partnership in Sri Lanka, LankaClear functions under the brand name ‘Lanka Pay’.

In 2002, LankaClear introduced Sri Lanka’s first interbank UITS while in 2015 implemented USD online payment system as policy directives of the CBSL.

The primary objective was to assist the economy and the CBSL by minimising the foreign exchange outflow from the country for inter-bank US dollar transactions. Reducing the transaction processing fees for same and lower the time taken to clear US dollar drafts were the other main tasks of these two systems.

Among Sri Lanka’s registered commercial banks, 13 members participate in US dollar online payment systems while 22 members participate in UITS.

BOC takes on the critical role of being the settlement bank for both systems, which was previously held by Sampath Bank PLC 
since 2006.