Page 4 - Payment System Review -Q2 FY24

by EMIs are gaining popularity especially amongst the particular segments such as youth and

freelancers, with a total of 2.7 million users registered with these EMIs. Fourth encouraging trend is
the increasing use of digital payments in e-commerce which grew 13% by volume in this quarter. All

these trends indicate a growing preference among Pakistanis for digital channels over traditional OTC
options.

During the quarter, mobile app and internet based banking transactions rose by 29% and 15%,
reaching 280 million valuing PKR 11.2 trillion and 57 million valuing PKR 5.4 trillion respectively. E-

wallet transactions exhibited a similar growth pattern with a quarterly increase of 31% by volume and

37% by value. Card-based transactions at ATMs, POS, and e-commerce also experienced notable
growth during the quarter, totaling 235 million (10%), 65 million (10%), and 11 million (13%)
transactions respectively. Notably, share of internet and mobile app based transactions were higher

than card-based transactions. ATMs continued to be customers preferred channel for cash withdrawal

having 229 million transactions during the quarter as compared to 49 million through OTC channel.
This shows that ATMs’ network in Pakistan is optimally utilized, serving customers for cash withdrawal

24/7 without the need of visiting the branch. In addition, customers can transfer funds, pay bills,
donate money and perform other financial/non-financial transactions through these ATMs. Volume

of transactions on POS machines grew by 10% whereas POS network itself grew by 3% during the
quarter. Importantly, higher merchant discount rate is considered a barrier in rapid expansion of POS

network. Furthermore, online means of payment is becoming more popular due to introduction of
free of cost Raast and QR based payments for purchases. At present, P2P QR is being offered by 25

banks/MFBs and in near future, P2M QR payments will further increase the digital payments share in
retail payments. A process flow for making QR payment is given at Annexure-C.

For large value payments, PRISM (RTGS) continued to facilitates settlements of inter-bank funds
transfers, government securities and ancillary clearing services. During the quarter, RTGS processed

1.5 million transactions amounting to PKR 273 trillion, maintaining an exceptional availability rate of
99.99%.

Notable developments during the quarter were; (i) issuance of regulatory instructions for Raast P2M
services to facilitate digital payment acceptance for merchants and businesses, (ii) signing of MoU by

SBP with Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) to establish a framework of cooperation between Buna and Raast
for cross-border payments, (iii) inclusion of a new EMI, M/s Akhtar Fuiou Technologies Pvt. Ltd, with

the aim to build digital payment platform for agri-economy, (iv) entrance of two banks in POS acquiring
business, and lastly, (v) issuance of instructions on standardization of purpose list for electronic funds

transfer to provide convenience to the customers.

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