People's Bank launches debit card

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

People's Bank creating yet another land mark launched its debit card last Monday opening new vistas in the local banking sector by becoming the first state bank to launch a debit card.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer People’s Bank, P. V. Pathirana hands over a debit card to a customer. Senior Assistant General Manager, H. S. Dhanasiri and Assistant General Manager Dr. Nihal R. Jayatillike look on.

The Peoples' Visa International debit card would allow their customers to make purchases both locally and globally from selected retail shops, make online purchases and also withdraw money from anywhere in the world.

The card will be a boon to businessmen especially in the rural areas as they would have the opportunity to make purchases using this debit card.

"This would also be important for them when doing transactions during holidays thus increasing business volumes and also stimulating the economy as well" said Deputy Chief Executive officer People's Bank, P. V. Pathirana. He said that the card would also increase the buying power of their customers especially in the North and East.

He said that they are one of the oldest banks with a wide branch network with over 12 million customers in Sri Lanka and they needed time to add technology to their network.

The technology was developed in house, saving a lot of money for the country.

The bank is now encouraging more merchants to purchase credit card swipe machines especially in the rural areas so that there would be a wider acceptance in plastic money transactions allover Sri Lanka.

Existing customers could obtain this card in just 24 hours.

In the future the card could also have a person's photograph being imprinted for added security.