Reliable
and efficient payment systems are vital to facilitate delivery
of home remittances securely and efficiently. State Bank
of Pakistan has already taken initiative to develop Payment
Systems Architecture of the country which would also help
in achieving following objectives at the completion of all
the phases:
- Automatic
delivery of home remittances in beneficiary account/ over
the counter system in real time; generating confirmation
SMS to remitter and the beneficiary.
-
Development of robust and reliable ATM Network to offer
an option to beneficiary of home remittances to withdraw
cash even after banking hours and holidays
- Development
of integrated and secured payment system infrastructure
of Alternate Delivery Channels (ATM POS, IVR, Call Centre,
Mobile Banking) offering option to beneficiary of home
remittances to make P2P payments, payments at merchant
sites, payment of utility bills, fund transfer etc. This
would encourage beneficiaries to maintain balance in bank
accounts eventually helping increase savings/deposits.
These
goals would be achieved through phased implementation of
payment system strategy. In the first phase banks will be
able to use PRISM (RTGS) to transfer and settle inter-bank
transactions. This would enable banks to transfer inter-bank
transactions into beneficiaries’ accounts on the same
day. Initially five banks (ABL, HBL, MCB, NBP and UBL) have
been selected to be part of this initiative. Additional
Ppartcipants may be added going forward subject to pilot
tests.
Participating
banks under Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) are required
to comply with the procedure attached in Annexure –A.
Banks need to undertake proper liquidity management for
reserve requirement and cash management at key geographical
ATM and branch levels to accommodate anticipated increased
volume and ensure smooth delivery of home remittances to
the beneficiaries/ account holders.
SBP
is also planning to provide facility to securely exchange
data pertaining to inter-bank transactions online to effect
to individual beneficiary account within stipulated time.
However, banks should transfer data through secured/ encrypted
email until the secured FTP server facility is made available.
For exchange of data banks will use agreed standard file
format attached at Annexure –B.
Participating banks are highly encouraged to take following
initiatives:
- To
enable a system to send SMS to the remitter and the beneficiary,
after crediting the remittance amount in the beneficiary
account or in the system for the cash payment at the counter.
- Install
ATMs at key locations/ branches to facilitate cash withdrawals
after banking hours and holidays. In this regard they
may also take measures to create awareness among beneficiaries
to use ATM for cash withdrawal.
- To
promote use of E-Banking/M-Banking Channels to make payments
at merchant sites, transfer of funds, pay utility bills
etc. which are available even after banking hours. In
this regard; banks may consider issuing Remittance Cards
and reduce/ waive various fees and charges on the use
of these channels.
Participating
banks need to ensure adequate controls in the process of
transfer and payment of remittances in/through beneficiary’s
account and over-the-counter payments. Furthermore, they
are also required to carry out procedures required to ensure
strict compliance of all SBP rules & regulations including
those related to KYC and AML/CFT measures.
All
other laws, regulations and SBP instructions relevant to
remittances will also be applicable in addition to this
circular.
The
circular is being issued under Payment Systems and Electronic
Funds Transfer (PSEFT) Act 2007 and non compliance will
be subject to penalty and compensation under the relevant
clauses of PSEFT Act 2007.
For
any query, please contact to the Payment System Department,
SBP, Karachi.