Commercial Bank of Ceylon has begun offering direct PayPal withdrawals for Sri Lankan freelancers, digital entrepreneurs and exporters, letting customers move their PayPal balances straight into a local Commercial Bank account through the ComBank Digital app.
The integration uses a self-service, email-based sync inside ComBank Digital. Customers link their PayPal account by matching the email address and date of birth registered with the bank, after which they can pull funds across without separate transfer instructions. Commercial Bank said it has also set up dedicated Freelancer Accounts to support customers earning from international clients.
“By enabling PayPal integration through ComBank Digital, we are facilitating the seamless flow of international earnings into the country’s formal financial system,” said Commercial Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Sanath Manatunge.
The bank’s move makes it the second large lender to add a PayPal pipe after Sampath Bank rolled out the same capability through Sampath Vishwa earlier this week. Both products sit on top of the broader PayPal launch in Sri Lanka that allowed inward payments to local accounts for the first time, and follow signals that domestic banks expect to onboard around 150,000 freelancers and lift foreign-currency inflows once integrations scale.
Commercial Bank crossed Rs.3.5 trillion in assets in the first quarter and has been pushing further into digital products, with a Port City branch opened earlier this month to court offshore business. PayPal’s local landing is widely expected to formalise foreign-currency flows that previously moved through informal channels because freelancers had no clean way to receive earnings.
