Please refer to PSD Circular No. 1 of 2021 dated March 10, 2021, regarding the captioned subject wherein State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has given regulatory instructions to banks and MFBs to promote digitization in the banking sector and usage of digital channels for banking and payment services.

2.          In order to further facilitate small businesses/corporates and encourage them to adopt digital means of payments, it has been decided that henceforth Banks/MFBs/PSOs/PSPs (herein referred to as Regulated Entities (REs)), shall mandatorily provide digital payments and facilitation of financial services, to the institutional clients (Corporation/Companies/Partnerships), including but not limited to:

1. Online portals/platforms for digital payments/receipts
2. Online Interbank Fund Transfer services
3. Online bill/invoice presentment and payments services
4. Over the Counter (OTC) digital payments services/facilities
5. Card payments using Point of Sale (POS) terminals, QR codes, mobile devices, ATMs, Kiosk and/or any other digital payments enabled devices
6. Any other digital/online payment modes

3.          REs shall ensure that a comprehensive authority matrix and necessary access controls are in place to avoid any unauthorized use of online corporate portals as well as other means of digital payments.

4.          For improved reporting purposes, REs shall ensure that all modes of transactions i.e. cash, digital, paper-based are recorded with proper identifiers for each transaction.

5.         For invoice-based transactions, REs shall create provision in their systems to record payer and payee account numbers/IBAN, title and type (individual/business), where available, and invoice numbers.

6.          REs shall submit detailed plan/roadmap along with timelines, within 30 days from the issuance of this Circular Letter, for the implementation of the above provisions.

7.          In addition to the above, REs shall also make all efforts to onboard non-corporate players including Sole Proprietors, SMEs and MSMEs for the provision of digital payment services. To monitor performance, REs are advised to provide the requisite information as per Annexure A on quarterly basis by the 15th of every month for the preceding quarter. For this purpose, banks are encouraged to enter into partnerships with other FinTechs including EMIs, payment aggregators, PSOs and PSPs.

8.         All other instructions including but not limited to compliance of AML/CFT/ CPF laws and regulations on the subject shall remain unchanged.

Please acknowledge receipt.

Encl: Annexure A