HNB Cards bag top award at VISA Security Summit in Bangkok

HNB Cards bag top best acquiring institution across India and South Asia’

award for the first time in

Sri Lankan history.



Hatton National Bank PLC (HNB) clinched the top award for “The best acquiring institution across India and South Asia” at the Leader Awards ceremony at the VISA Security Summit held in Bangkok recently.

VISA, the world’s leading payment card association, has recognised HNB for playing a leadership role in ensuring that the card industry adopts effective risk management practices to minimise fraud whilst maintaining substantial growth in transaction volumes.

The HNB Card Risk Management team was commended for excellence in fraud risk management and supporting VISA’s efforts to maintain trust and security in the payments industry in the region during 2012 and 2013.

“It was a landmark achievement for HNB to win this coveted award, as the best institution for risk management in acquisition business, because this was the first time that Sri Lanka was honoured with this accolade,”said HNB Head of Cards and Electronic Delivery Channels Mangala P. Wickramasinghe.

HNB was selected based on three qualifying factors; namely the lowest fraud to sales ratio in acquiring, the adoption of effective risk management practices to minimise fraud and finally, selection by a jury comprised of VISA Risk Management personnel across APCEMEA (Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Admittedly, it has always been a difficult proposition to win any award across Asia since the volumes processed by leading banks in the region are huge he noted. “It was a singular achievement for HNB to bag this award at the VISA Security Summit because India and the South Asian region as a whole competed for this category.”

VISA recognises that combating fraud is not an individual effort, but one that requires collaboration within the whole industry. Financial institutions have been advancing their risk management infrastructure by enhancing their technology, protocols and tools to effectively mitigate emerging threats and trends.

VISA clients across the APCEMEA region have been proactively countering fraud across all channels and the key objective of VISA was to applaud and recognise those who have stood out in their risk management measures, strategies and success rates.

HNB is best equipped to give the most secured acquiring solutions to our customers in both traditional acquiring (POS) and e-commerce acquiring (Internet Payment Gateway), Wickramasinghe stressed.

“The acquiring business is not just giving POS machines. How we became the market leader in merchant services was through our quality of service delivery, where all acquisitions are supported through our 250-strong branch network and the head office”, he said.

“We also support merchants in numerous other ways through all other electronic delivery channels, such as internet and mobile banking, where they can monitor all transactions through both internet and mobile banking channels”, he explained.

The facet of e-commerce and traditional acquiring is that the merchants get together with the bank and use various focused promotion campaigns to increase business volumes, Wickramasinghe noted.

“Overall such a feat is a proud achievement for both HNB and Sri Lanka as, despite our country’s volumes being relatively small in comparison to other big players in the region, we managed to earn this singular honour through sheer hard-work, service excellence and technology innovation”, he explained.

Looking into the future, HNB also plans to introduce new technologies in the spheres of both acquiring and issuing cards to support various categories of merchants in the future, he said. “HNB’s strategy is to serve its customers and partners through a multi-channel banking strategy. Our customers and partners could choose their preferred channel in banking,” Wickramasinghe said.