LOLC Finance Leads the Fintech Revolution in Sri Lanka
In one of the most historic mergers in Sri Lanka, LOLC Finance PLC, one of the leading Non-banking Financial Institution (NBFI) in the country, merged with its sister company, Commercial Leasing & Finance PLC (CLC), to become the largest NBFI in Sri Lanka during the year. LOLC Finance now commands a network of 210 branches, a burgeoning customer base of over 600,000, a lending portfolio of over LKR 200 Bn and an impressive deposit base of over LKR 180.7 Bn, which accounts for nearly 20% of the entire industry. LOLC Finance also became the first NBFI in Sri Lanka to surpass the LKR 25 Bn mark in Pro-forma Profit Before Taxes. The combined entity has LKR 333Bn. of assets together with a total capital of over LKR 86.7 Bn, a new path breaking trend for NBFIS, where they can be on par with the largest banks in the country on many fronts.
Its focus on adopting technology and digitalisation has given it a pioneering status in the financial services industry, with the adoption of fintech solutions such as mobile collections and electronic customer on boarding. LOLC Finance was one of the first NBFIS’ in Sri Lanka to break into the mobile technology domain with the launch of the LOLC Real-time online portal and the mobile app in 2014. The Fintech journey of LOLC Finance began much earlier where the company introduced field force collections using mobile technology as far as 2010 and was one of the first financial services institutions to facilitate this for customers at the bottom of the pyramid. Technology adaptation and digitization continued, whether as a fintech solutions provider for improving internal efficiencies or servicing customers direct with LOLC Real-time.
Moving forward in the digital landscape, for the first time in Sri Lanka, LOLC Finance together with a leading Telco services provider in the country, introduced a digital lending solution in 2017. The solution catered through mobile devices was based on big data. In 2018, LOLC Finance entered into credit card business, assuring its contribution towards the national cashless drive. Despite many external economic challengers, LOLC Finance managed to reach 100,000 cards within a short period of four years, and is identified as the fastest growing portfolio by the respective card scheme.
Today, LOLC Finance being the flagship finance company in the group is the main driver and banking rail provider for the Fintech initiatives and is aptly supported by the Group’s two main Fintech solutions, ipay and OYES, on its digitalisation journey.
LOLC Finance PLC partnered with ipay in 2017, with the launch of the Justpay platform by Lanka Clear to become the first in the banking and financial services sector to enable Justpay transactions via a mobile app.
LOLC Finance has been recognised and awarded many accolades for its Fintech solutions and was also recognised at the 4th edition of the Lankapay Technnovation Awards, by Lanka Clear with Gold awards, as the Non–banking Finance Institution (NBFI) of the Year for Financial Inclusivity, NBFI of the Year for Excellence in Customer Convenience, Financial Institution of the Year for Best Digital Payment Strategy, Best Mobile Application for Retail Payments Via Just Pay (Banks and NBFI), Overall Award Excellence in Inter-bank Digital Payments (NBFI), Merit Award for the Most Popular Digital Payment Product (Banks and Nbfi-mobile Payment App).
Krishan Thilakaratne, Director/ Chief Executive Officer of LOLC Finance PLC says, “ipay has created a revolution in the Sri Lankan banking and financial space and is the number one platform in terms of number of transactions, transactions value and customer acquisitions. Over 70% of our users on-boarded are totally new to LOLC Finance. We offer the users with a full range of LOLC products and services, and facilitate Lanka QR merchant payments. This enables our users to enjoy an array of services conveniently, from the comfort of their homes. We believe we have added immense value to our users in order for them to live their lifestyles simply through ipay. We are also pleased to claim the launch of the country`s very first fully digitalised salary advancing platform, OYES. The platform enable employees to unlock their earned salaries digitally. The Fintech solutions are enabling us to offer our array of financial solutions and enhance customer touchpoints with LOLC Finance.” (Figure 01)
ipay, inspiring the digital lifestyle
In 2017, ipay was launched with the objective of providing innovative financial services while encouraging users to involve in a digital lifestyle. This initiative also stimulated the idea of cashless transactions amongst users. At present, ipay’s vivid presence is strongly visible in Sri Lanka and Cambodia while further global expansions are held in the pipeline. Over the years of excellence, ipay has positioned itself as the “digital mobile payment lifestyle application” in Sri Lanka.
ipay as an aggregator enables adding any bank account through the Justpay platform of Lanka Clear (Pvt.) Ltd.
In addition, ipay allows the users to associate any Visa or Master debit or credit card as a funding source for any transaction. ipay has enabled an electronic know your customer (EKYC) process, where users are able to open a Digital Bank Savings Account (DBA) or a Digital Fixed Deposit (DFD) conveniently from anywhere at any time. Also, with a few steps, any user is allowed to switch into to a merchant account, which will allow them to accept cashless and Lanka QR payments. One of the unique features of ipay is that the merchant also can accept payments from any card scheme using the same Lankaqr.
As a platform ecosystem, ipay supports two distinct customer groups; one as a lifestyle app and financial services super app for the general public, and the other as a merchant cashless payment acceptance platform. Merchants are provided with the option of accepting payments via multiple channels including QR codes over the traditional POS machines which employs a substantial installation cost. With the benefit of the QR codes, the small and medium scale (SME) entrepreneurs are also able to embrace the contemporary technology with minimal cost. Both ipay users and merchants are enabled with the capability of enjoying all these features at present. (Figure 02)
ipay has been built on an architecture that allows easy integration with any system and has been designed with a host of features and a vibrant, well-organized graphical user interface, giving the user a unique one-of-a-kind transaction experience.
Further, ipay has been certified PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) from SISA, a global Payment Security Specialist, trusted by organizations across the globe for securing their businesses with robust preventive, detective and corrective security services and solutions.
Hasala Thilekaratne, Head of SME and Consumer Business, LOLC Finance PLC says, “With a small and dedicated team, ipay is being recognised as the No.1 Fintech application in Sri Lanka. With over 300,000 customers and over 45,000 merchants island wide, ipay enables nearly 1 million transactions a month, amounting to over Rs.6 billion in value. With ground-breaking features and month-on-month growth in usage, ipay has been recognised through many awards as the best fintech app in Sri Lanka. OYES is yet another fintech platform that will revolutionize how salaried employees can access their earned salaries. OYES provides the complete end-to-end solution while working with highly secured systems, and delivering on time and on-quality systems, which rewards both employers and employees to create a better working environment.”
Nimesh Fernando, Assistant General Manager - ipay, LOLC Finance PLC further states, “Amongst the countless features, transaction security is the utmost gain for the ipay customers. As ipay revolves around a multitude of technologies in their back end, it critically focuses on providing a high level of safety for all the transactions performed over the platform.”
ipay has consistently won prestigious local and global awards. Some of the most recent ones are: Lankapay Technnovation Awards 2022, Gold Award – Best Mobile Application for Retail payments via Justpay (Banks and Non – Bank Financial Institutions), Merit Award – Most Popular Digital payment product (Banks and Non – Bank Financial Institutions - Mobile payment app), International Business Magazine Awards 2022, Winner – Most Innovative Digital Payment Solutions Provider- Sri Lanka 2022, Winner – Best Mobile App for Retail Payments – Sri Lanka 2022, World Business Outlook Awards 2022, Winner – Best Digital Finance Solution Provider- Sri Lanka 2022, Winner – Most Innovative Non-banking Finance Solutions Provider- Sri Lanka 2022, Finance Derivative Magazine Awards 2022, Winner – Best Digital Payment Services Company in Sri Lanka 2022.
OYES, unlocking your earned income
Simplifying lives for salaried employees and their employers, OYES or Own Your Earned Salary is Sri Lanka’s first digital salary advance solution, which automates the salary advance disbursements and settlements. OYES will function as a facilitator and a simplified platform for salary advancing, while eliminating the burden of cumbersome paperwork and processes on employees. OYES could be scaled up starting from small companies to larger corporates.
Employees will be able to obtain an advance from their current month salary and access real time fund transfer to their salary account 24x7. Through the solution, companies can do away with fulfilling employee demand for informal borrowing options and social and economic stresses. OYES backend portal integrates with employer’s HR and Payroll systems to obtain salary and attendance data of employees, which will be used to determine the Earned Salary of respective employees. Based on the calculated Earned Salary,
OYES will facilitate salary advances to employees based on predefining percentage by the employer. Hence, this can be implemented to any employer without any restrictions of company scale or geography limitations. (Figure 03)
A user can obtain an advance through a kiosk deployed at employer location or through ipay by associating the OYES account or using their debit or stored value card, 24/7. The advance taken will be set off in next salary cycle and employer will be provided with required reports for the payroll calculation and a portal and audit trials for monitoring and control. Employers could grant salary advances through a prefunded corporate account - obtaining a Credit Line or an Invoice Settlement.
The OYES Platform simplifies the complex tasks and frictions of salary advancing process while protecting data and minimising human errors. Thus, OYES platform is built focusing convenience, transparency and security with the ability to scale while keeping the employees continuously connected with HR division stimulating efficiency and overall work satisfaction.
One of the pillars on which LOLC Finance has achieved pioneering status in Fintech is through accelerated technology platforms in its digitalisation journey. More importantly, its pioneering Fintech innovation is driving its market leadership in the financial services sector locally and globally. LOLC has pioneered several technology platforms that are revolutionizing the financial services sector to the next stage of growth exponentially.