The announcement came on International Women’s Day, a worldwide celebration of womanhood and femininity and a focal point in the global movement for women’s rights.

The program will enable credit unions to facilitate loan origination, approvals, disbursements, and deposits digitally.

This is the first foreign equity placement by Commercial Bank, the first post-pandemic equity placement by the IFC and is one of the largest foreign investments into Sri Lanka since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Banks continue to dominate the microfinance sector accounting for 41 percent of the loan share of the industry.

The measures include a moratorium of one year on all principal repayments as well as interest rate reduction on all applicable CBN intervention facilities from nine to five percent per annum for one year effective 1 March, 2020.