KARACHI: The usage of mobile banking has surged phenomenally as transactions worth Rs1,764 billion recorded during fiscal year 2019/2020, which is 104 percent higher over the preceding fiscal year.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in a report said that usage of digital channels has registered a significant growth during the fiscal year 2019/2020.
The value of mobile banking grew to Rs1,763.6 billion in fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with Rs866.8 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The number of transactions of mobile banking also recorded 101.5 percent growth to 83 million in fiscal year 2019/2020 as against 41 million in the preceding fiscal year.
Internet banking, also an important component of digital banking, registered 71 percent growth in terms of value.
Internet banking recorded transactions worth Rs2,953 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with Rs1,722 billion in the preceding fiscal year.
The number of transactions also increased by 43 percent to 56.6 million during the fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with 40 million in the preceding fiscal year.
E-commerce transactions also grew by 33.7 percent. During fiscal year 2019/2020 transactions worth Rs35 billion recorded as compared with Rs26 billion in the preceding fiscal year.
Transactions through Point of Sales (POS) have declined slightly to an amount of Rs364 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with Rs366.2 billion in the preceding fiscal year.
Transactions through ATM registered nominal growth of 0.5 percent to Rs6,430 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with Rs6,399 billion in the preceding fiscal year.
The SBP in its report said that in the wake of COVID-19 global pandemic which has posed serious economic and social challenges for regulators, policy makers and services providers, etc., the digital transformation has become vital, not only for payments and financial services but also for every sector of the economy catering to financial needs of the customers.
SBP, being the regulator of payments and financial industry, has played a great role to promote and develop payment and digital financial services in the country.
As regulator of payment systems, SBP took numerous steps, which, inter alia, include promoting and developing interoperable payments infrastructure, issuing enabling regulations especially for retail payment providers and FinTechs, ensuring the trust and security of digital payment channels, promoting new technologies and innovations etc.
These initiatives are primarily aimed at development of digital payment platforms, provision of a conducive regulatory environment for the industry and promotion of innovative and convenient digital payment instruments in the economy.
As a result, the payments industry in Pakistan continued to show a healthy growth, both in terms of volume and value of transactions conducted during FY20.
A detailed analysis of the key digital payments indicators and initiatives of SBP to promote payment systems and digital financial services in the country is given in the following sections.
