CBSL to resume talks with PayPal & Stripe

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) plans to refresh its talks with popular worldwide online payments system PayPal on its inward access to Sri Lanka, as early as possible, CBSL officials on Friday told Ceylon FT.
At the moment, Sri Lankans can send money to any PayPal user, but Sri Lankans can’t receive money from anyone through PayPal.

“We are fully committed to promote the digital economy. Unfortunately Sri Lankan market is too small for them. However, we will try our best to convince them and keep up a dialogue to gain this restricted inward PayPal access to Sri Lanka,” a senior official at CBSL’s Payments and Settlements Department said.

Meanwhile, speaking to Ceylon FT, National Chamber of Exporters chief Ramal Jasinghe said, they are also continuously lobbying the relevant authorities to gain full PayPal access to Sri Lanka.

“As exporters, PayPal is a very important digital payment method to us. There are many individuals and small and medium businesses that provide online services. But Sri Lanka not supporting PayPal has become a barrier for them to continue……and progress in their career,” he said. CBSL official also said, they plan to refresh talks with another payment gateway provider, Stripe to enter Sri Lanka.

“The ICTA has done some initial paper work with Stripe. Now we have to restart that temporally stopped process while working with stakeholders to conclude approvals,” he said.
Stripe is a US technology company operating in over 25 countries, which allows both private individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet.

Stripe focuses on providing the technical, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure required to operate on-line payment systems.