From the national infrastructure that settles trillions in real time to the wallets, cards, and agents people use every day, Pakistan's payments landscape is a connected ecosystem regulated and developed by SBP to be safe, efficient, and accessible to all.
The system also provides a Central Securities Depository (CSD) platform for money market operations, including auction of government securities, secondary market transactions, collateral management, and open market operations.
Pakistan's First Instant Payment System
Raast enables end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses, and government entities instantaneously. Pakistan's faster payment system settles small-value retail payments in real time while providing cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry, including commercial banks, microfinance banks, government entities, and fintechs such as EMIs and PSPs.
Fully digital banks operating without physical branches. In September 2023, SBP granted In-Principle Approval to five Digital Retail Banks (DRBs). Since then, each institution has been progressing through the licensing journey at its own pace — some have moved closer to full commercial launch while others continue to build out their infrastructure and meet regulatory requirements:
SBP engages actively with regional and multilateral bodies to improve the speed, cost, and transparency of cross-border payments — connecting Pakistan's domestic infrastructure to wider payment corridors.
On the bilateral front, SBP has signed an MoU with the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) to integrate Raast with Buna — the AMF's cross-border, multi-currency payment system operated by the Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization (ARPCSO). The integration aims to enable instant, low-cost remittance flows between the Arab region and Pakistan through formal digital channels, benefiting both individuals and businesses.
At the multilateral level, Pakistan participates in the SAARC Payments Initiative (SPI), a platform for central banks across South Asia to coordinate on cross-border payment frameworks and harmonise payment policies within the region. SBP is also an active member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), contributing to global policy efforts on digital payments and financial inclusion.
SBP mandates security standards across payment channels and instruments to protect consumers and maintain system integrity. Regulated entities are required to comply with:
For an exhaustive and up-to-date list of applicable security requirements, please refer to the latest SBP circulars.
The Payment Systems Policy & Oversight Department (PSP&OD) publishes the Payment Systems Review on a quarterly and annual basis, providing comprehensive data and analysis on the performance of Pakistan's payment ecosystem.
