During September-December 2020, 296.7 million e-Banking transactions valuing Rs21.4 trillion were carried out, marking
a growth of 24 per cent by volume and 22 per cent by value, over the same quarter last year.
This was stated by State Bank of Pakistan in its Quarterly Payment System Review (QPSR) for the second
quarter, October – December 2020. Majority of the transactions in e-banking were seen in internet and mobile banking.
The volume of mobile banking transactions was recorded at 44 million, (rising by 147 per cent) valuing Rs.1.12 trillion (up by 192 per cent) compared to 17.8 million transactions valuing 382.5 billion in the same quarter, the previous year.
The number of registered mobile phone banking users reached 9.4 million leading to increase of 5%YoY.
As a result of SBP’s measures for installation of Point of Sale machines to facilitate digital payments through debit or credit cards, the number of POS machines have witnessed a notable growth of 18% during Q2FY21, standing at 62,480 installations across Pakistan.
On these POS machines, 23 million transactions amounting to Rs115 billion were processed during Q2FY21, depicting positive impact of the market conducive policies adapted by SBP, particularly targeted towards increasing the payment acceptance infrastructure in Pakistan.
Card transactions on e-commerce portals have also increased significantly, with e-commerce merchants accepting 5.6 million transactions through payment cards amounting to Rs15 billion as compared to 3.9 million valuing 11.9 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, leading to a shift in the behaviour of the Pakistani population and also complements Government/SBP’s efforts to develop a more market-friendly landscape toward acceptance of payments by e-commerce
merchants.
Total number of digital cards issued in the country stood at 44 million, where 27.6 million are debit cards and 1.7 million are credit cards.
Further, 7.6 million were social welfare cards have been issued by banks on behalf of BISP, EOBI and other government organizations.
In the last few years, Digital payment transactions in Pakistan have shown significant growth, reflecting
the favourable impact of the SBP’s policies in shifting customer preferences.
Expansion in digital payment infrastructure, as well as the emergence of new payment aggregators, have played a role in
this growth. In line with its declared objectives to digitize payment and financial services, SBP will continue promoting digitization in the country and expects the industry to support these efforts, which will increase convenience and financial inclusion for all Pakistanis.
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