Commercial Bank becomes first bank to offer online EPF payments

Thursday, 8 September 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Corporate institutions can now make Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) payments in a convenient manner via ‘Paymaster,’ the innovative electronic total payment solution of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon, the Bank rated internationally as Sri Lanka’s best.

The formal agreement enabling EPF payments to be made via Paymaster was signed recently by Rupa Dheerasinghe, the Superintendent of the Employees’ Provident Fund and Sanath Bandaranayake – Deputy General Manager – Operations of Commercial Bank.

Consequently, EPF payments can now be made online and “C”/”C3” forms may be uploaded electronically on a monthly basis, eliminating the need to write and deliver cheques and fill forms manually. Users of Paymaster will also benefit from the added convenience of being able to make EPF payments 365 days of the year from any location, even when the payment counters are closed, the Bank said.

“This crucial upgrade to our Paymaster solution underlines our commitment to offering the most complete range of payments to our clients,” Bandaranayake said. “Consistent efforts to integrate the latest technological developments have driven the Bank’s evolution into the benchmark for innovation in the local banking industry.”

The popularity of Paymaster has lead to its widespread use and more than 1,400 corporate clients use it at present, he added.

“This is a milestone of the EPF ‘E-Collection Project.’ We are joining hands with the Commercial Bank of Ceylon to reap the benefits of new technological developments in the banking sector to provide facilities for employers to send their ‘returns’ and pay ‘monthly contributions’ while sitting in their offices,” Rupa Dheerasinghe Superintendent of EPF said.

“We invite all employers dealing with Commercial Bank of Ceylon to use ‘Paymaster System’ to send their member details and payments.

Our future plan is to encourage other financial institutions to come up with similar solutions.”

The web based and highly secure Paymaster product already facilitates ETF payments and numerous others including settlement of suppliers, disbursement of dividends and interest, payment of insurance claims and agent commissions and payment of salaries and bonuses. Payments via Paymaster can be made by simply uploading a file to Commercial Bank’s web platform.

There is no limit to the number of transactions and any number of payments can be accommodated in a single file sent to Paymaster.

If the paying party and beneficiary both maintain accounts at Commercial Bank, the transfer of funds would be virtually instant. Commercial Bank is the largest private bank in Sri Lanka, and the most internationally lauded financial institution in the country.

The Bank has been adjudged ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ for 13 consecutive years by ‘Global Finance’ Magazine and has won multiple awards as the country’s best bank from ‘The Banker,’ ‘FinanceAsia,’ ‘Euromoney’ and ‘Trade Finance’ magazines.

Commercial Bank operates a network of 202 computer-linked Service Points in Sri Lanka in addition to 17 Service Points in Bangladesh.

The Bank also owns the single largest network of ATMs in the country currently numbering 436 terminals.