Dialog, NDB Bank pioneer mobile payments

Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Executive, Dialog Telekom is seen here speaking at the conference

Dialog Telekom and NDB Bank this week unveiled eZ Pay, South Asia’s first mCommerce (Mobile Commerce) initiative, a service that allows consumers to purchase goods, pay bills, transfer money and perform banking transactions through their mobile phones.

Themed “mPowering a New Economy”, eZ Pay is set to add a revolutionary and consumer centric dimension to inclusive banking in Sri Lanka. The Dialog-NDB mobile commerce network will empower consumers with the ability to carry out a variety of electronic transactions using their mobile phone from anywhere within Dialog GSM’s network coverage, Dialog said in a statement.
The technology also facilitates the transformation of merchants and retailers (of varying size and scale) in to electronic payment acceptance points and mini-banking points. The facilitation of electronic transactions at the smallest of retail stores across the country is expected to create and nurture an all new wave of grass-root banking. Mobile Commerce technology enables mCommerce software on the SIM card to transform a standard mobile phone into an electronic wallet in the hands of the consumer and/or a Point of Sale device capable of capturing and validating electronic (Mobile Commerce) transactions and banking transactions in the hands of retailers and merchants.

"It is increasingly the case that, the power of technology combines with economic forces, to transform society,” said Nihal Welikala Chief Executive of NDB Bank. “The impact of the mobile phone on the banking industry has the potential over time, to bring about fundamental change, to transform the way we do business, and with whom. It has the power to bring banking to the under-banked, to whoever owns a mobile phone, and at almost any location.”

Speaking at the inauguration of the service under the auspices of the Governor of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Nivard Cabraal, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Executive, Dialog Telekom said, “Building on the strengths of our eZ electronic reload network and the spirit of innovation innate in our distributors, retailers and partners from all parts of the country, the eZ Pay service will no doubt set in motion a consumer centric and revolutionary transformation in payments and banking signaling the emergence of a new mobile economy.”