Daily Times

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has released its Quarterly Payment Systems Review for Q2 FY25, providing summary on payment systems and presenting notable changes in country’s digital payments.

Pakistan’s digital payment landscape strengthens as transactions continue to increase in Q2-FY25 as well. Retail transactions witnessed an 11% increase in volume, reaching 2,143 million, while the value of transactions increased by 12% to PKR 154 trillion. The growth in value was primarily driven by, mobile banking app payments, and internet banking payments, and over-the-counter (OTC) transactions at bank branches.

Digital payment channels processed 88% of all retail transactions by volume, with mobile app-based banking playing a crucial role. These platforms which includes mobile banking apps, branchless banking (BB) wallets, and e-Money wallets, collectively processed 1,450 million transactions worth PKR 24 trillion, marking a 12% increase in volume and 28% increase in value. The number of users leveraging digital banking services also saw a steady rise. Mobile banking app users grew to 21 million (?7%), e-Money and BB wallet users increased to 4.7 million (?13%) and 64.3 million (?7%) respectively, while internet banking users reached 13.3 million (?7%).

Merchant payments through digital means also expanded this quarter. Digital e-commerce transactions increased by 30% in volume to 152 million, amounting PKR 193 billion (?32%). By volume, 8% (12.8 Mn) of the e-commerce transactions were made through cards, 92% (139.5 Mn) through digital wallets/accounts, while by value, this share was 33% and 67% respectively. The 115,177 Point-of-Sale (POS) enabled merchants with 151,646 POS terminals facilitated 89 million (?7%) in-store purchases, totaling to PKR 510 billion (?19%). Retail/Kiryana store merchants accepting payments through QR or BB wallets reached to 22.1 million in volume and PKR 58 billion in value, a growth of 4% and 9% respectively.

SBP operated payment systems, Raast (Instant Payment System) and RTGS (Real-time Gross Settlement System) played its key role in increasing the digitalization of payments in the country. Raast Instant Payment System processed 296 million transactions worth PKR 6.4 trillion during Q2-FY25, bringing cumulative transactions since inception to 1,144 million, valued at PKR 26 trillion. The large-value transactions via RTGS system settled transactions worth of PKR 330 trillion, registering a 19% increase in value.