The Central Bank of Sri Lanka completed a full replacement of its real-time gross settlement system on March 11, 2024, launching an ISO 20022-compliant LankaSettle platform. The upgrade was a big-bang migration from the legacy system to a Montran-supplied platform. This marked the most significant change to Sri Lanka's core settlement infrastructure since its original deployment in the early 2000s.
LankaSettle operates as three integrated modules. The RTGS component handles large-value and time-critical interbank fund transfers with immediate finality. LankaSecure manages government securities settlement on a delivery-versus-payment basis. The Central Depository maintains the scripless registry of government debt instruments.
The system serves 35 direct participants: the Central Bank, 24 licensed commercial banks, one licensed specialized bank, seven primary dealer companies, the Employees' Provident Fund, and the Central Depository System of the Colombo Stock Exchange. By value, RTGS transactions account for approximately 85 percent of all non-cash payments in Sri Lanka. Settlement types include interbank call money market trades, government securities transactions, open market operations, net cheque clearing obligations, retail payment net positions from CEFTS, and common ATM switch settlements.
CEFTS, the Common Electronic Fund Transfer Switch, provides real-time retail fund transfers and settles its net obligations through LankaSettle on an intraday basis. The March 2024 ISO 20022 migration aligns LankaSettle with international messaging standards already adopted by major RTGS systems including T2, BOJ-NET, and HVPS. CBSL has also revised transaction fees and extended the cut-off time for accepting customer transactions through the system.