More debit than credit card holders in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is now rapidly moving towards a cash-less society with the increase in debit and credit card transactions with retail payments in cash for goods services recording a decline, bank officials said.
A large number of consumers are using debit or credit cards for point -of-sale payments, they disclosed.
Sri Lanka’s next generation of adults will grow up with debit cards, credit cards and pre-paid cards, bankers predicted.
According to Visa International statistics, Sri Lankans are using 11 million debit cards and over 950,000 credit cards at present. The outstanding credit was Rs. 49.3 billion.
Pre-paid cards, a new introduction to Sri Lanka, provide multiple applications include toll payments in transportation, payments of bus fare, etc
Most of Sri Lankan banks including Bank of Ceylon (BOC), Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank (HNB), HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Sampath Bank, Nations Trust Bank, Peoples Bank, etc are issuing debit cards to its account holders that can be used as shopping cards as well.
People prefer to make payments for goods and services using a debit or a credit card rather than in cash and it has become a status symbol in Sri Lanka, the manager of a BOC branch located in the Colombo suburbs told the Business Times.
He added that using cards has become a fashion at present and this trend will grow in the near future.
HNB One is the newest card that serves multiple purposes as an ATM Card, Debit or Shopping Card all in one which eases the burden of customers from carrying many cards, making the purse lighter, Head of Card Centre and Electronic Delivery Channels Mangala P. Wickramasinghe said.
Banks are offering discounts and other benefits for their credit or debt card customers through their accredited merchants and service providers
These different types of partner merchants that range from Travel & Leisure, Fine Dining Furniture, Accessories and Clothing, etc entail cardholders to varied discounts throughout the year, he disclosed.
This was another reason for the people to embrace plastic cards rather than cash, he added.
Latest market trends show that people like the convenience of using plastic for their shopping, without having to pay cash, and that they like to have a choice between using credit cards or debit cards.
“According to current data the growing numbers of people now prefer to use their existing funds through debit cards for shopping due to current economic conditions,” he emphasised.
Touchwood depositors
any information that is in the records or books of the company maintained in the ordinary course of business.
In the winding up application filed in the Commercial High Court of the Western Province, the company sought to be wound up defaulted on the payments to the creditors agreed in court to settle by 28th February 2014. “In lieu of the default payments the Petitioner informed Courts of its intention to proceed with the appointment of a liquidator. Therefore the SEC in considering the potential risk posed to the investors in light of the seriousness of the offences and the circumstance of the winding up application decided to issue the following directive in order to protect the interest of investors till further notice,” the announcement added. The company has been facing a crisis since its founder Ross Maloney and his director-wife Swarna Maloney sold the company to new investors. They are abroad and evading a current probe by the SEC. The SEC said trading will be suspended until the company releases its long-delayed financial results to the market.
One depositor was quoted in a Business Times report recently as saying that no one picked up the phones at the company office. “I found out that their office has been relocated to Nawala from Joseph Lane, Colombo 4.” He raised concerns as to why the regulators are allowing this share to trade on the stock exchange.
SEC is pursuing the Maloney’s on alleged frauds related to inter-company transfer of funds. Last year Touchwood trading was suspended twice but lifted after clarifications by the company.