The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been adjudged the ‘The Best Engaging Overall Cards Base’ for the third consecutive year at the ‘Payment Partner Performance Awards 2022’ hosted by Daraz, South Asia’s largest ecommerce platform.

The Bank was presented this prestigious award for supporting the Daraz platform by generating the highest number of transactions by both credit and debit card bases and the highest number of unique buyers’ engagements during the financial year 2021-22.

Commercial Bank is the only Sri Lankan bank to win this award for three years consecutively.

The Bank said it has conducted 18 card promotions in collaboration with Daraz from January 2021 to date, encouraging large numbers of the Bank’s customers to engage with the online shopping platform, thereby generating the highest payment volume for the year of assessment for the latest award. These year-long promotions are designed by the Bank to provide the best benefits to its card customers and to foster loyal relationships with its partner merchants.

Notably, Commercial Bank cards generated the highest sales volumes for Daraz during most of its online promotions in 2021-22, including at ‘Daraz 11.11’ and ‘Daraz 12.12’ that were positioned as Sri Lanka’s biggest online shopping festivals.

Commenting on this latest award, the Chief Manager of Commercial Bank’s Card Centre Mr Nishantha de Silva said: “Platforms like Daraz not only represent the present and the future of eCommerce, they complement Commercial Bank’s own efforts to popularise the use of digital and web-based banking to the masses. We are delighted with the steadily increasing volumes we are generating for Daraz and look forward to collaborating innovatively with the Daraz platform in the future as well.”

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been the Internet Payment (IPG) service provider to Daraz from 2018. The two organisations have been working together to offer diversified and unique offers to customers with a view of offering them attractive value additions. Commercial Bank cardholders can enjoy periodic discounts at Daraz with the offers structured by the Bank, and the convenience of Easy Payment Plans of up to 60 months.

Launched in 2012, the Daraz ecommerce site has an active presence in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Nepal. The marketplace has over 2.5 million products in diverse categories such as consumer electronics, household goods, beauty, fashion, sports equipment, and groceries. It was acquired by the Alibaba Group in 2018.

Commercial Bank credit and debit cards offer year-round promotions covering a wide variety of services. Commercial Bank was the first bank to offer loyalty rewards for both credit and debit card holders under its Max Loyalty Rewards Points scheme. The Bank was also a pioneer in extending promotional discount offers which were traditionally only offered for credit cards to its debit cards.

Commercial Bank cards are the fastest growing cards in Sri Lanka and enjoy market leadership in credit and debit card cumulative point-of-sale usage. The Bank offers a variety of credit cards in the Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers of Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay Cards, as well as Visa Signature, World Mastercard, Visa Infinite, UnionPay Asia Prestige Platinum and UnionPay Asia Prestige Diamond Cards in the premium segment. The cards are equipped with ‘Tap ’n Go’ NFC technology and are backed by a strong NFC Point-of-Sale (POS) network.

Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon neutral bank, the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 12 years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 268 branches and 940 automated machines in Sri Lanka. Commercial Bank is the largest lender to Sri Lanka’s SME sector and is a leader in digital innovation in the country’s Banking sector. The Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake.

Photo caption: Commercial Bank's Chief Manager Card Centre Mr Nishantha de Silva (3^rd from left) receives the award from Daraz Managing Director Mr Rakhil Fernando in the presence of (from left) Mr Wishan Fernando, Officer Card Centre and Mr Kalinga Divaratne, Senior Manager – Card Centre of Commercial Bank, and Mr Dulika Jayamanne, Head of Payments at Daraz.