Banking Online

Nov 14, 2006 (LBO) – Bank of Ceylon (BoC), Sri Lanka's biggest lender in terms of assets, plans to finish linking up all its branches within the next few days, allowing customers to carry out their banking needs by using the Internet, officials said Tuesday. "We have 302 local branches and 248 of those branches are accessible online. Out of our 82 extension offices, 42 have been automated so far," Udayasri Kariyawasam Chairman BoC told businessmen.

With over 20 percent of country's banking assets or just over 300 billion rupees, the state bank began moving all its branches to Fiserv's International Comprehensive Banking System (ICBS) in 2005.

Fiserv a fortune 500 company, delivers technology, systems, and services to help businesses manage and profit from information, has solutions to process financial transactions, automate business operations and much more.

"What we provide for BoC is software and services which are the same services all the major banks in the world have access to," James Fisher, Managing Director Fiserv said.

The online services provide customers the facility to inquire about account balances, past transaction inquiries and statement of current accounts.

The system also provides Letter of Credit (LC) facilities,