Sri Lanka's payment infrastructure has a genuinely useful quirk for anyone choosing between rails: its real-time system (CEFTS) and its older batch system (SLIPS) share the exact same per-transaction ceiling â Rs 5 million â so the choice between them comes down purely to speed and cost, not what the transaction is capable of carrying. Above that shared ceiling, everything routes to LankaSettle, the country's RTGS backbone, with no upper limit.
The short version
Sri Lanka's payment infrastructure is operated by LankaPay (formerly LankaClear) under the oversight of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL):
- CEFTS (Common Electronic Fund Transfer Switch) â real-time interbank fund transfers, launched 2015, available 24/7.
- SLIPS (Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System) â the older batch settlement system, processing three batches per business day.
- LankaSettle â the CBSL's real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, combined with the government securities settlement system, for large-value and time-critical transfers.
CEFTS â real-time, 24/7, capped at Rs 5 million
CEFTS is Sri Lanka's real-time interbank payment system, launched in 2015 to replace slower batch processing with immediate crediting to recipients' accounts. Transactions can be initiated through internet banking, mobile apps, ATMs, QR codes, or over-the-counter channels, and by the 2025 financial year, it connected 48 financial institutions including major banks like HSBC, People's Bank, and Bank of Ceylon.
- Settlement type: Real-time, individual transaction basis
- Speed: Funds available in seconds, 24/7/365, with no daily cut-off
- Value tier: Per-transaction cap of Rs 5,000,000 (approximately US$15,500), a limit periodically reviewed and adjusted by CBSL circular
- What it's used for: P2P transfers, business payments, and any transaction that needs to move now rather than in the next scheduled batch
SLIPS â batch processing, three cycles a day, same cap as CEFTS
SLIPS predates CEFTS and remains in active use for low-value, bulk retail payments â salaries, utility payments, and other scheduled transactions â processed in three settlement batches per business day, with the last cut-off typically around 2:30pm. Customers receive funds within the same day (T+0) or, depending on the transfer type, scheduled for up to 14 days out.
- Settlement type: Batch, three settlement cycles per business day
- Speed: Same business day if submitted before the relevant cut-off; otherwise the next available cycle
- Value tier: Also capped at Rs 5,000,000 per transaction â identical to CEFTS's ceiling, meaning the choice between the two rails is about speed and fee, not transaction size
- What it's used for: Salary payments (still popular with many employers including government bodies), scheduled bulk transfers, utility payments
SLIPS and cheques together still account for more than half of Sri Lanka's retail payment value, reflecting both customer familiarity and SLIPS's relatively low fees compared to CEFTS for non-urgent transfers.
LankaSettle â real-time gross settlement, no upper limit
LankaSettle combines Sri Lanka's RTGS system with the government securities settlement system (for Treasury Bills and Treasury Bonds) into a single infrastructure, owned and operated directly by the CBSL since the RTGS component first launched in September 2003. Every transaction settles individually, in real time, with finality and irrevocability â the layer both CEFTS and SLIPS ultimately connect back to for genuinely large transfers.
- Settlement type: Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) â individual, immediate, final
- Speed: Immediate, during LankaSettle operating hours
- Value tier: No upper limit â this is precisely the rail transactions move to once they exceed the shared Rs 5 million ceiling on CEFTS and SLIPS
- What it's used for: Large corporate transfers, interbank settlement, government securities settlement, and any payment above the retail-rail ceiling
Separately, Sri Lanka's LankaGovernment Payment Platform (LPOPP), launched in 2017 and operating on CEFTS, is worth noting for government-related payments specifically: it supports very high transaction limits (up to Rs 20 billion) with instant reconciliation, processing over 40% of government revenue collection as of 2024 â a specialized overlay rather than a fourth general-purpose rail.
Comparison at a glance
| System | Operator | Settlement | Speed | Value tier | Typical use |
|---|
| CEFTS | LankaPay (CBSL-overseen) | Real-time, individual | Seconds, 24/7 | Up to Rs 5 million/txn | P2P/business transfers, urgent payments |
| SLIPS | LankaPay (CBSL-overseen) | Batch, 3 cycles/business day | Same-day (T+0) to 14 days | Up to Rs 5 million/txn | Salaries, scheduled bulk/utility payments |
| LankaSettle (RTGS) | Central Bank of Sri Lanka | Real-time gross settlement | Immediate | Uncapped | Large transfers, government securities settlement |
What this means if you're moving money in and out of Sri Lanka
For transactions under Rs 5 million â the vast majority of commercial activity â the choice between CEFTS and SLIPS is genuinely about urgency and cost rather than capability: CEFTS for anything that needs to move now, SLIPS for scheduled or bulk payments where a same-day or multi-day timeline is acceptable and lower fees matter more. LankaSettle becomes the only option once a single transaction exceeds that shared ceiling, with no upper bound of its own.
For anyone building payment infrastructure that touches Sri Lanka, the LPOPP government payment overlay is also worth flagging separately if the use case involves government payments or revenue collection specifically, since it operates on materially different transaction limits than standard commercial CEFTS traffic.
