BOC and DRP sign MoU to speed up process of customer validation

BOC Deputy General Manager Sales and Channel Management Priyal Silva and Department for Registration of Persons Commissioner General P.V. Gunathilaka signing the MoU  

Being a responsible corporate citizen and the country’s No. 1 Bank, Bank of Ceylon sets an example by complying with the customer identifying regulations requested by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to ensure a healthy maintenance of the country’s financial system. 

In this regard BOC joined with the Department for Registration of Persons (DRP) through an online system to scrutinise the validity of identification of documents and obtain the validity of the customer national identification number (NIC) at the part of customer onboarding as and when required. With the signing of the MoU, Bank of Ceylon will involve itself with the DRP’s roadmap for ‘Central Data base for Citizen Information’.

“Being a responsible Government financial institution, it is a responsibility of the Bank of Ceylon to align itself with other Government institutions and join in the initiative of developing the Country through the carefully planned digital road map laid by the Government of Sri Lanka. BOC identifies this initiative introduced by DRP as one such very important part of the overall development plan,” stated Deputy General Manager Sales and Channel Management Priyal Silva.

This initiative will improve the process of obtaining accurate customer identification on time which is an essential requirement in undertaking banking transactions. It will benefit the customer by ensuring banking transactions are met on timely basis on proper identification of the customer. This will enable the BOC to view data and images of documents related to the National Identity Card submitted by any customer with his or her consent in order to verify the authenticity of the particulars of the National Identity Card, of the person who intends to open a BOC Account via the BOC Digital/Manual Account Facilities and the other banking services provided by BOC. 

This is an industry-wide solution formed in accordance to the requirements of the CBSL and the bank has been permitted to access the web-based system developed by DRP for authentication and verification of the correctness of particulars of the NICs.

The Memorandum of Understanding between Bank of Ceylon and DRP took place at the DRP premises at Suhurupaya, Battaramulla recently with the participation of BOC DGM Sales and Channel Management Priyal Silva and other officials from the bank and officials from the DRP.