The global shift toward digital commerce has placed payment networks at the center of economic transformation. For Visa, one of the world’s most trusted digital payments companies, the mission goes beyond facilitating transactions. It is about building secure, resilient financial infrastructure that enables economies to grow and communities to participate more fully in the digital world. Leading this vision across Sri Lanka and the Maldives is Avanthi Colombage, Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives at Visa, whose leadership focuses on translating Visa’s global principles into meaningful local impact.
Operating in two markets with distinct economic dynamics, Avanthi sees digital payments as a powerful enabler of national development. Her leadership philosophy emphasizes strengthening the financial architecture that supports consumption, tourism, entrepreneurship, and cross-border commerce. By embedding Visa’s global leadership principles into everyday decision-making, she aims to ensure that the digital payments ecosystem remains resilient, inclusive, and future-ready.
“A trusted, always-on digital payments network is not just a commercial asset, it is national infrastructure,” she says. “It supports consumption, tourism, SME trade, financial inclusion, and revenue flows across the entire economy.”
Central to Visa’s success in the region is its ability to cultivate strong partnerships across the financial ecosystem. The company works closely with banks, fintech companies, merchants, and governments to co-create solutions that address structural challenges while driving long-term economic value. Avanthi believes that true innovation happens when diverse stakeholders align around shared goals and measurable outcomes. “Every collaboration can only succeed if it is built on shared goals, progress, and meaningful economic outcomes,” she explains.
In Sri Lanka, this partnership-driven approach has led to several milestone initiatives designed to accelerate digital payments adoption. One such initiative is Visa Accept, introduced in collaboration with Hatton National Bank. The solution allows merchants to convert their smartphones into secure payment acceptance devices, enabling micro and small businesses to accept digital payments without the need for traditional point-of-sale terminals.
For many entrepreneurs, the barriers to digital payment acceptance have historically included high equipment costs, complex onboarding procedures, and regulatory requirements. Visa Accept was designed specifically to address these challenges. By offering a mobile-first solution that requires minimal infrastructure, the initiative enables even the smallest businesses to participate in the digital economy.
This approach reflects Visa’s broader mission of financial inclusion, ensuring that individuals and businesses everywhere have access to secure, reliable payment systems. By empowering small businesses with digital tools, Visa is helping them improve cash-flow management, build financial histories, and access new economic opportunities.
“Visa Accept is a game-changer when it comes to closing the last-mile gap in access to financial services,” Avanthi notes. “By enabling micro and small businesses to accept digital payments using just a smartphone, we are lowering the barriers that previously prevented many entrepreneurs from entering the digital economy.”
Beyond empowering small businesses, Visa has also been instrumental in advancing consumer payment innovations in Sri Lanka. Through a partnership with Commercial Bank of Ceylon, the company helped introduce Google Pay to the Sri Lankan market. This launch marked the country’s first globally aligned tokenized tap-to-pay ecosystem, enabling millions of consumers to make secure contactless payments wherever Visa is accepted.
Such initiatives highlight how global innovations can accelerate local readiness for the next phase of digital commerce. By introducing technologies that are already widely adopted worldwide, Visa helps local markets integrate more seamlessly into the global financial ecosystem.
In parallel, Visa is also focusing on the evolving premium payments landscape in the Maldives. As the country’s tourism-driven economy grows and consumer expectations rise, demand for sophisticated payment experiences is increasing. Through a partnership with Bank of Maldives, Visa introduced Visa Infinite, the nation’s first metal payment card. The offering delivers premium travel privileges, cross-border access, and curated lifestyle benefits designed for high-value consumers.
While innovation remains a key priority, Avanthi stresses that trust and security must always remain the foundation of digital payments. Visa continues to invest heavily in advanced technologies to safeguard its global network. Using artificial intelligence-powered risk detection systems, the company has prevented more than USD 40 billion in fraudulent transactions in a single year, blocking tens of millions of attempted fraud cases worldwide.
These investments form the backbone of the company’s security infrastructure across South Asia, ensuring that transactions, whether domestic, cross-border, or mobile-initiated are protected end-to-end. As digital payments continue to expand, maintaining consumer confidence will remain essential to sustaining adoption.
Another major focus area for Visa is interoperability. As consumers increasingly transact across multiple platforms and devices, payment systems must function seamlessly across markets and technologies. Visa continues to introduce solutions that strengthen this connectivity across the region.
One such initiative is the introduction of Card Present Connect (CPC) in Sri Lanka through a partnership with NDB Bank. The solution enables merchants to accept EMV chip cards, contactless payments, and mobile wallet transactions through Android-based Smart POS devices. By simplifying merchant onboarding and enabling global card acceptance, CPC helps expand secure payment acceptance for both local and international customers.
These combined efforts, from empowering small merchants to introducing advanced security systems and enabling mobile wallets are helping build a comprehensive digital payments ecosystem in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. For Avanthi, the ultimate measure of success lies not only in technological innovation but also in the broader economic progress these solutions enable.
“Our role is to bring together global innovation, local partnerships, and secure infrastructure to enable individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive,” she says.
As both countries accelerate toward a more cashless future, Visa’s continued investments in innovation, partnerships, and security will play a critical role in shaping the region’s financial landscape. Under Avanthi Colombage’s leadership, the company remains focused on ensuring that digital payments are not just convenient, but also inclusive, resilient, and capable of supporting long-term economic growth.