HNB cards bag VISA top award

Hatton National Bank PLC (HNB) clinched the top award for “The Best Acquiring Institution Across India & South Asia” at the Leader Awards ceremony VISA Security Summit held in Bangkok recently. This is a first for Sri Lanka.

The HNB Card Risk Management team was commended for excellence in fraud risk management and supporting VISA’s efforts to maintain trust and security in the payments industry in the region during 2012 & 2013.“It was a landmark achievement for HNB to win this coveted award, as the best institution for risk management in acquisition business, because this was the first time that Sri Lanka was honoured with this accolade,” said Mangala P. Wickramasinghe, Head of Cards & Electronic Delivery Channels, HNB.

HNB was selected based on three qualifying factors; namely the lowest fraud to sales ratio in acquiring, the adoption of effective risk management practices to minimize fraud and finally, selection by a jury comprised of VISA Risk Management personnel across APCEMEA (Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East & Africa).

Admittedly, it has always been a difficult proposition to win any award across Asia since the volumes processed by leading banks in the region were huge, he said. “It was a singular achievement for HNB to bag this award at the VISA Security Summit because India and the South Asian region as a whole competed for this category”.

VISA clients across the APCEMEA region have been proactively countering fraud across all channels and the key objective of VISA was to applaud and recognize those who have stood out in their risk management measures, strategies and success rates.

HNB is best equipped to give the most secured acquiring solutions to our customers in both traditional acquiring (POS) and e-Commerce acquiring (Internet Payment Gateway), Wickramasinghe said.

“The acquiring business is not just giving POS machines. How we became the market leader in merchant services was through our quality of service delivery, where all acquisitions are supported through our 250-strong branch network and the Head Office,” he said.

“We also support merchants in numerous other ways through all other electronic delivery channels, such as internet and mobile banking, where they can monitor all transactions through both internet and mobile banking channels,” he said.

The facet of e-Commerce and traditional acquiring is that the merchants get together with the bank and use various focused promotion campaigns to increase business volumes, Wickramasinghe noted.

Looking into the future, HNB also plans to introduce new technologies in the spheres of both acquiring and issuing cards to support various categories of merchants in the future, he said.