📌 Introduction Google Pay — a widely used mobile-based digital wallet and contactless payment platform — has officially launched in Sri Lanka in 2025, marking a major step in the country’s digital payments transformation. Until recently, Sri Lankan users could not tap-to-pay using local cards, but this has finally changed with key partnerships.
📍 What’s New in Sri Lanka? Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC has become the first bank in Sri Lanka to enable Google Pay for its customers, in collaboration with Google and Visa. Through this partnership, Visa debit and credit cardholders of Commercial Bank can add their cards to Google Wallet and use their Android NFC-enabled smartphones for contactless payments. WEBXPAY, a local payments platform, has also enabled Google Pay for online checkout payments via collaboration with Mastercard and Seylan Bank — expanding digital payments to e-commerce. 📱 How It Works Google Wallet + Google Pay technology lets you: Add your Commercial Bank Visa card to Google Wallet. Authenticate your card with a one-time password (OTP) or bank verification. Tap to pay at NFC-enabled POS machines at stores — no need to carry a physical card. Pay online quickly with Google Pay where supported. Google Wallet securely stores your card details and uses tokenization — replacing real card numbers with unique digital tokens to protect your information. 🔐 Security & Convenience Google Pay and Wallet transactions are protected by: Tokenization — makes sure merchants never see your actual card number. Biometric or device authentication — your fingerprint or face unlock your payment. Encrypted data — your sensitive data stays private. This makes Google Pay both fast and secure — better than handing over a physical card.
📊 Benefits for Users ✔ Contactless payments at shops using your phone. ✔ Quicker online checkout without re-entering card details. ✔ Global acceptance — once added, tap and pay wherever Visa is accepted. ✔ Greater security through tokenization.
⚠️ Current Limitations Initially available only for Commercial Bank Visa cards — other banks are expected to follow later. Some users report phased rollout and card compatibility issues — certain cards may not be accepted immediately.
🛒 For Merchants Merchants using WEBXPAY can now accept Google Pay online with minimal setup — improving checkout experience and conversion rates.
📌 Conclusion The launch of Google Pay and Google Wallet in Sri Lanka is a major milestone for digital payments. It enables secure, contactless payments with a smartphone and adds a global standard to the Sri Lankan financial ecosystem.
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