People’s Bank supports INFOTEL 2018 as a Gold Sponsor

People’s Bank has stepped forward as a Gold Sponsor for Sri Lanka’s flagship ICT Expo, INFOTEL 2018, being held from 2 to 4 November at the BMICH, under the theme ‘Towards a Digital Economy’. 

The bank’s partnership with Infotel 2018 is aligned to its own ambitious digitalisation journey towards becoming Sri Lanka’s most digitalised bank by 2020. 

In 2015, People’s Bank took a strategic decision to embark on a historic digitalisation drive to become the most digitalised bank in Sri Lanka in order to continue offering greater competitiveness to customers, many of whom are aspiring entrepreneurs and SMEs. The digitalisation process is expected to help the bank keep abreast of the changes in the digital transformation in the financial and banking sector taking effect globally.

INFOTEL 2018 is organised by the Federation of Information Technology Industry of Sri Lanka (FITIS) in collaboration with the Government and private sector institutions. The key objective of this year’s exhibition is to showcase the latest ICT and digital innovations, harnessing the best ICT solutions to empower the future growth via multiple carrier guidance events on an ICT platform. 

There will be around 200 exhibition and trade stalls and the exhibition will not be limited to showcase ICT products and gadgets, but will be one of international standards and a meeting place for corporates, buyers, sellers, recruiting companies, career seekers and IT enthusiasts alike. 

Commenting on the bank’s partnership with INFOTEL 2018, People’s Bank Senior Deputy General Manager (Banking Operations) Bonniface Silva said: “People’s Bank is leading the banking sector’s transformation into a digitally-empowered sector, and this is why we are pleased to support INFOTEL 2018, the nation’s premier ICT expo. Digitalisation is the way forward to boost the economy and INFOTEL 2018’s theme, ‘Towards a Digital Economy’, is an apt one. Digitalisation will no doubt boost opportunities for the SME sector which is largely supported by People’s Bank. People’s Bank is proud to facilitate the ICT expo reach out to the masses. There is no doubt that most products and services are moving towards digital platforms and People’s Bank is clearly leading the way.”

People’s Bank is working strongly towards being the most successful bank in Sri Lanka through the digitisation of its services. The bank currently serves over 16 million customer account relationships, through 740 branches and is also connected to a network of over 4,000 ATMs which are linked through the Lanka Pay gateway. People’s Bank is in the ideal position to take the convenience of digitalised banking services of to all citizens of Sri Lanka. 

Taking digital banking to its next level and introducing green banking to youth, People’s Bank has established 200 Self Banking Units islandwide equipped with the most modern ATM, CDM and Kiosks. The touch screen CDM/ATM/Kiosks are accessible 24 hours in the day, for 365 days in the year, further enhancing convenience for customers and putting them in control of where, when and how they would like to conduct their banking needs. 

The CDM even enables utility bill payments by cash apart from facilitating cash deposits and balance enquiry. The ATM, apart from offering standard features, also offers cardless cash withdrawals and cash advances on credit cards, modified to better suit customer needs. Bill payment is facilitated directly over the account by the CDM and the Kiosk, with real time update facility for customers as well as general public, over the new CDM. Customers even have the availability of creating daily withdrawal group limits upon customer requirements. 

The first phase of People’s Bank’s digitalisation drive culminated with the opening of a fully-fledged Digital Centre at York Street, Colombo 1. Incidentally it becomes the first fully digitalised branch, thus creating history in Sri Lanka’s banking industry. The bank further launched Express Banking at this digital branch to allow customers to experience how its digitalisation initiatives will streamline and simplify their financial affairs by offering speed and convenience. The launch of this Digital Centre marks a quantum leap for the bank in its dynamic leadership to become the most digitalised bank by the year 2020, to unlock the benefits of digitalisation for its customers.