Country’s payment infrastructure shows a robust growth

Pakistan’s payments infrastructure demonstrated robust growth during the second quarter of this fiscal year (FY24), bolstered by Real-time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and Raast faster payment system.

According to Quarterly Payment Systems Review (PSR) for the second quarter (Oct-Dec) of FY24, during the quarter, 82 percent of retail transactions were conducted digitally as compared to 80 percent in previous quarter showing a continued increase in adoption of digital payments. Conversely, in terms of value, 85 percent of retail payments were conducted at Over-the-Counter (OTC) and only 15 percent through digital channels.

In Pakistan, RTGS system processes large value financial transfers and settlements, whereas Raast and PSOs/ PSPs are the channels for Retail Payments, based on transaction’s nature and customer’s preference.

During the period under review, four major trends stand out. First trend is the consistent adoption of mobile app and internet banking which is evident by the increasing number of users and transactions through these channels. Together, these two channels constitute the largest share of 50 percent in total digital transactions.

Mobile and Internet Banking users reached 16 million and 11 million indicating a quarterly growth rate of 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Mobile app and internetbased banking transactions rose by 29 percent and 15 percent, reaching 280 million valuing Rs 11.2 trillion and 57 million valuing Rs 5.4 trillion respectively. Share of internet and mobile app-based transactions was higher than card-based transactions

Second trend is the increase in Raast’s usage. Raast, an Instant Payment System and PRISM (Real Time Gross Settlement System) significantly contributed to the digital financial services nationwide.

In the current quarter, volume of transactions processed via Raast reached to 107 million amounting to more than Rs 2 trillion, while since its inception in January 2021, Raast has processed a cumulative 343 million transactions, with a cumulative value exceeding Rs 7 trillion.

SBP said that this aggressive and continued build up in the growth momentum of Raast shows that it is becoming a game-changer for digitizing payments ecosystem in the country.

Thirdly, E-wallets issued 2 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 percent by volume in this quarter.