Transaction volumes through SLIPS grows 32%

The volume of transactions through the Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System (SLIPS) operated by LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd. (LCPL) grew by a significant 32% from the financial year 2009/10 to 2010/11 whereas the value of transactions grew by 19% during the same period.

CEO, Sunimal Weerasooriya

The total value of transaction cleared through SLIPS during the financial year 2010/11 was Rs. 346 B. SLIPS is commonly used for salary payments, pension payments, customer account to account fund transfers, standing orders, insurance payments, credit cards settlements, dividend payments and IPO refunds.

LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd. (LCPL), Sri Lanka's premier catalyst for facilitating progressive payment systems infrastructure, has over the years introduced numerous advanced infrastructure systems to the country's financial landscape.

The Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System (SLIPS) is a technology that transformed the banking landscape, introducing new and enhanced levels of efficiency, security and cost effectiveness to the interbank fund transfer system.

SLIPS is an online interbank electronic fund transfer system which eliminates the need for paper work in the fund transfer process.

Catering mainly to low-value retail payments upto Rs. 5 m, the system enables electronic movement of funds from one account to another without the corresponding physical documentation.

The system therefore enables increased levels of security by eliminating the physical movement of paper documentation, faster transfer times and lower infrastructure requirements, ensuring greater revenue generating capabilities, operational efficiencies and cost savings to banking institutions and customers, said the company's CEO, Sunimal Weerasooriya.

Using SLIPS for payment and recovery of payments will bring tangible benefits to customers. These include payments being realised on the same day subject to certain conditions and low cost compared to other interbank paper based payment systems, ease of initiating the transaction and extended windows for submission of transactions.

He said that all participating financial institutions are connected to LCPL through a Virtual Private Network (VPN).