Samurdi Banking system to be digitalized

Vishmi Wijeratne

Sri Lanka Samurdi Authority, together with Sri Lanka Telecom Services computerized the Samurdi Banking system now to be known as the Divinaguma Banking so as to make the task of banking easier. The Samurdi Banking system being at its initial stage, will further develop into the standards of other online banks.

"The banking system will be open to the public from today onwards. However the banking system will run manually at first, until it's fully optimized. All the 'sangam' throughout the country will have this software after they are fully facilitated with the necessary hardware. We hope to look into this by end of next month," Director General, Samurdi Authority, R. P. B. Thilakasiri said. Meanwhile, Computer Engineer, Asitha Pieris said that this software is designed using the latest technology, which is the open source technology and will be a web based application that everyone can use in their transactions.

"The Director General of the Samurdi Authority informed me that they wished to introduce Micro Leasing and Micro Finance in the near future and this software will facilitate this need as well," Pieris said.

Pieris also stated that the Samurdi Authority will keep on extending their support in their endeavor to digitalize the Samurdi banking system, they plan on introducing Automatic Teller Machines to the system while introducing SMS banking and online banking.

"At present, this is a manual system and we will let the software work on its own after a parallel run. Once the parallel run is in par with the manual system, we will be able to let the software work on its own," Pieris added at the gathering.

At present the system will have customer registration where those who wish to use this service can register using their National Identity Card number. There is a 'saving module' regarding savings and a general ledger.