Sri Lanka’s leading private bank, HNB PLC, continued its steadfast support to accelerate the adoption of digital payments in the country, by joining the ‘Rata Purama LANKAQR’ campaign of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in Tangalle.
From its launch in late 2020, HNB has persistently backed the programme, which seeks to increase the usage of Sri Lanka’s national QR platform, facilitating, fast, secure and affordable digital payments, benefiting customers and merchants. The bank, participating in the day-long promotion, demonstrated the benefits of its LANKAQR-integrated HNB SOLO payment app, while engaging with and onboarding merchants to its platform. CBSL’s other partners in the initiative, including financial institutions and telecommunication companies, also attended the event held at Mahinda Rajapaksha Grounds Tangalle.
“While initially, the pandemic created a need for and boosted the adoption of digital payments, now, both merchants and customers are beginning to see the long-term benefits,” HNB Head of Digital Business, Chammika Weerasinghe said. “It is crucial to capitalize on this interest and build further on the successful initial foundation, to extend this programme across the country. HNB has been highly proactive in this sphere – particularly in introducing HNB SOLO and partnering with several leading merchants on dynamic QR technology.”
HNB has played a prominent role in driving a cashless QR-code based payments revolution that aims to make mobile phones and digital payments the standard for day-to-day transactions island-wide.
Launched in 2019, HNB SOLO, which facilitates increased efficiency on all transactions and zero physical contact, has seen rapid growth in its user base. Users can make payments via LANKA QR by scanning the code using SOLO. Upon completion, merchants will receive an instant SMS notification, confirming the receipt of payment. The intuitive, user-friendly and sophisticated app has significantly increased the convenience of making a wide range of QR-based payments.
HNB has been continuously enhancing the app’s features and functionality by further improving its user interface. Users of HNB SOLO also benefit from the fact that QR-code based-payments are more cost-effective, when compared to alternative payment solutions available in the market.
Most recently, the bank introduced Dynamic QR in partnership with both Keells Supermarkets and Singer, in which a unique code is generated for each transaction. This allows customers using an app linked with the LANKAQR to make contactless purchases at stores by simply scanning the Dynamic QR, which appears on the display screen of the Point of Sale (PoS) machine. By eliminating the need to manually enter the payment value, this mechanism increases customer convenience and avoids errors.
Officially launched in Matale in 2020, the ‘Rata Purama LANKAQR’ campaign has held promotional events in several areas – including Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Katugastota and Maharagama – to promote the common Quick Response (QR) code standard developed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. As LANKAQR is a common Quick Response (QR) code standard developed by the CBSL, merchants will no longer need not have multiple QR codes for different platforms.
