Commercial Bank enhances customer convenience with ‘Over the Air PIN’ for credit & debit cards
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon hasintroduced‘Over the Air PIN’ (OTAP) for credit, debit/ATM cards, establishing another benchmark in technological innovation, speed and customer convenience.
New card holders of the bank will no longer be required to wait for their PIN (Personal Identification Number) to arrive in the post to activate and use their cards, Sri Lanka’s largest private bank announced. Instead, they will now receive their PINs to registered mobile phone numbers via SMS, when the cards are ready for collection.
The PIN sent to a mobile phone via SMS is a temporary PIN and the message requests the customer to visit any of the 630ATMs of Commercial Bank to register a new PIN for the card. The card is automatically activated when the PIN number is changed.
The OTAP method minimises the waiting time, and security is ensured by the fact that the temporary PIN sent to the mobile phone is only valid for changing the PIN. If an existing customer misplaces or forgets his or her PIN number, a new temporary PIN will be sent within an hour of notifying the Bank.
Besides removing the hassle of having to wait till a PIN arrives to use the card, the OTAP system also eliminates the use of paper and other resources to send out printed PINs.
“We are delighted to introduce yet another technological improvement to bring convenience to our valued customers through the introduction of OTAP,” Managing Director of Commercial Bank Mr. JeganDurairatnam said. “At Commercial Bank we are keen to introduce technology that matters in the lives of our customers. We areparticularly glad to introduce this development immediately after our ATM network was made EMV compliant, thus assuring maximum security according to international standards,” he added.
The new facility will be valid for all newly-issued personalised credit cards and debit/ATM cards, since instant cards are given a PIN at the point of issuing, the Bank said.
Holders of Commercial Bank’s standard ATM cum Shopping Debit Cards can withdraw up to Rs 40,000 from the Bank’s ATMs per withdrawal. The Bank also offers customers the option of setting their own ATM withdrawal limits up to a maximum of Rs 100,000 a day, and a point-of-sale limit of up to Rs 500,000.
The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for five consecutive years, Commercial Bank operates a network of 251 branches and 630 ATMs in Sri Lanka, the largest electronic cash dispensing facility owned by a single bank in the country. Commercial Bank has won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank, Best Trade Bank, Strongest Bank, Most Respected Bank from a number of local and international institutions and publications over several years. The Bank has also been adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for several years.
Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 18 outlets and Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon. The Bank will open a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in the Republic of Maldives in 2016. The Bank also recently received a license to operate a fully owned Money Transfer Operation in Italy.
