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  • SBP issues QR standards to accelerate digital payments

    SBP issues QR standards to accelerate digital payments

    KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued standards for Quick Response (QR) code based payments in the country to accelerate digitization of retail payments, a statement said on Wednesday.

    These standards are to be met for issuing of QR codes and accepting of payments through the same. This initiative is a part of SBP’s drive to promote inclusion, innovation, and modernization of payment systems in the country.

    READ MORE: Pakistan’s e-banking registers sharp increase in 1QFY22

    The development and issuance of a single QR code was earlier announced by Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Dr. Reza Baqir, while chairing the 5th Stakeholders consultation meeting on Digital Financial Services in August 2021. With the issuance of a single country wide QR code standard Pakistan joins the list of countries who have taken similar steps to promote low cost digitization of payment services, especially at retail level.

    QR Code based payments are increasingly becoming popular around the world for being low cost and easy to use via mobile applications. However, in Pakistan, QR codes that are being issued by financial institutions are not usually based on common industry standard and had limited interoperability due to which their acceptance and usage in the country is very low.

    READ MORE: SBP imposes Rs1.45 billion penalty on 18 banks in 2021

    Accordingly, the common QR code standards have been developed by an industry consultative group, formed by SBP, and is based on EMVCo’s QR Code Specifications for merchant payments. EMVCo is a global technical body that facilitates worldwide interoperability and acceptance of secure payment transactions by managing and evolving the EMV Specifications and related testing processes. The Standards are designed to be flexible to adapt to new and innovative use-cases, with data objects allocated for scheme, acquirers and SBP for future use.

    To facilitate the issuance and adoption of QR code based payments, SBP has issued its two variations: one for person to person payments and other for person to merchant payments. The Person to Person (P2P) standard would be used by banks and financial institutions to generate personalized QR codes for their customers, using which they would be able to receive payments on their mobile apps.

    READ MORE: SBP imposes penalty of Rs58 million on five banks

    Similarly, the Person to Merchant standard would be used for accepting and processing merchant based payments, using mobile apps, on lines similar to card based payment acceptance.

    All financial institutions offering digital payment services would be required to comply with the new requirements and ensure that mobile apps of all banks and other payment institutions in Pakistan are able to scan and process any QR code that is issued as per the new standard not later than 30th June 2022.

    READ MORE: SBP slaps Rs280 million penalty on National Bank

    The Standards also promote the establishment of domestic payment schemes, which will provide an efficient and cost-effective payment alternate to the citizens of Pakistan. Further, it will enable a fully interoperable mechanism for QR issuance with embedded information of multiple payment schemes within a single QR code, allowing the customer to choose from a range of available schemes. This will result in eliminating or reducing the number of multiple QR Codes at the merchant locations. It may be mentioned that SBP has also recently launched the person-to-person (P2P) version of its instant payment system, Raast which will offer a fully interoperable payment mechanism for QR based payments as well.

    With the issuance of the standard QR code guidelines, State Bank aims to further enhance the availability and promote use of low-cost digital payment acceptance points (ie. QR Codes) across the country. The new QR Code standard would simplify customer experience for paying or accepting digital payments in their daily lives such as for grocery shopping, school fee payments, bill payments, online shopping, ride hailing services, besides enabling P2P Fund transfers i.e. fund transfers between individuals.

  • Customers’ exchange rates on March 02, 2022

    Customers’ exchange rates on March 02, 2022

    Karachi, March 02, 2022: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has released the official exchange rates for March 02, 2022, providing a comprehensive view of currency values against the Pakistani Rupee.

    (more…)
  • SBP issues KIBOR rates on March 01, 2022

    SBP issues KIBOR rates on March 01, 2022

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday issued the Karachi Interbank Offered Rates (KIBOR) as of March 01, 2022.

    Following are the latest KIBOR rates:

     TenorBIDOFFER
    1 – Week9.7310.23
    2 – Week9.7910.29
    1 – Month9.8810.38
    3 – Month10.3710.62
    6 – Month10.7811.03
    9 – Month10.8311.33
    1 – Year10.8711.37
  • Customers’ exchange rates on March 01, 2022

    Customers’ exchange rates on March 01, 2022

    Karachi, March 01, 2022: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has unveiled the official exchange rates for March 01, 2022, providing a comprehensive overview of currency values against the Pakistani Rupee.

    (more…)
  • Pakistan’s e-banking registers sharp increase in 1QFY22

    Pakistan’s e-banking registers sharp increase in 1QFY22

    KARACHI: Pakistan’s e-banking registered sharp growth in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021/2022, the central bank said on Monday.

    E-banking—defined as transactions conducted via electronic channels (including Real-time Online Branches, ATMs, mobile banking, internet banking, call center banking, POS and e-Commerce), continued to thrive in both volume and value during the quarter under review as it grew by 12 per cent and 16 per cent respectively in Q1-FY22 over the same quarter of FY21.

    The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released its first quarterly report of payment systems for the fiscal year 2021-22 today covering the period July – September, 2021. The report shows that Pakistan’s payment ecosystem, especially though digital platforms, continued its brisk pace of growth.

    READ MORE: SBP imposes Rs1.45 billion penalty on 18 banks in 2021

    Two major areas where high adoption in digital payments were witnessed are mobile and internet banking. The number of mobile banking users grew by 4 per cent on quarter over quarter (QoQ) basis, reaching a total of 11.3 million.

    The number of transactions conducted via mobile banking channels was 79.1 million with a value of around PKR 2.2 trillion, showing a QoQ growth of 29 per cent by volume and 36 per cent by value. Internet banking also contributed to the upswing in usage of e-Banking services by registering 31 per cent QoQ growth in internet banking users who conducted 30 million transactions amounting to PKR 1.9 trillion. This amounts to 6 per cent progress in terms of volume and 10 per cent increase in the value of these transactions on QoQ basis.

    READ MORE: SBP imposes penalty of Rs58 million on five banks

    Retail sector continued to show adoption of digital payments. Overall e-Commerce transactions recorded an impressive QoQ growth of 87 per cent by volume and 21 per cent by value, though the number of e-commerce merchants remained almost the same as of the last quarter.

    During the quarter, 12.7 million ecommerce related transactions amounting to Rs22.3 billion were conducted using digital payment channels. Similarly, the number of merchant Point of Sale (POS) machines also increased by 10 per cent QoQ reaching to 79,134 machines in the country.

    These machines processed 28.1 million card-based transactions at merchant locations amounting to almost PKR 134.9 billion which showed QoQ increase of 16.1 per cent by volume and 10.6 per cent by value.

    READ MORE: SBP slaps Rs280 million penalty on National Bank

    As of end-September 2021, there were 46.2 million total cards in circulation which mainly comprised of Debit Cards (64 per cent), Social Welfare Cards (22 per cent), ATM only Cards (10 per cent), Credit Cards (4 per cent), and Prepaid Cards (0.3 per cent). During this quarter, QoQ increase of 5 per cent in volume of paper-based transactions and 3 per cent increase in value of paper-based transactions was also observed which may be attributed to people returning to traditional channels (i.e. branches) as pandemic related restrictions were lifted.

    In Large-value (wholesale) payments segment, transactions processed, during this quarter, through SBP’s Real-time Inter-Bank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM) recorded a total of 1.1 million transactions amounting to PKR 159.1 trillion which is 7 per cent higher than the preceding quarter.

    READ MORE: National Bank under grip of regulatory violations

  • SBP issues KIBOR rates on February 28, 2022

    SBP issues KIBOR rates on February 28, 2022

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday issued the Karachi Interbank Offered Rates (KIBOR) as of February 28, 2022.

    Following are the latest KIBOR rates:

     TenorBIDOFFER
    1 – Week9.7410.24
    2 – Week9.7910.29
    1 – Month9.8810.38
    3 – Month10.3610.61
    6 – Month10.7811.03
    9 – Month10.8111.31
    1 – Year10.8611.36
    SBP issues KIBOR rates on February 25, 2022
  • Customers’ exchange rates on February 28, 2022

    Customers’ exchange rates on February 28, 2022

    Karachi, February 28, 2022: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued the official exchange rates for February 28, 2022, offering a snapshot of currency values against the Pakistani Rupee.

    (more…)
  • SBP relaxes financing for under construction houses

    SBP relaxes financing for under construction houses

    KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has relaxed financing conditions for housing units in under construction projects.

    The central bank issued a circular dated February 25, 2022 to ease the conditions for house financing. It said that in order to further facilitate buyers of housing units in under construction projects, requirement of builder/developer to avail construction financing is being relaxed.

    READ MORE: Bank Alfalah tops in house financing under MPMG

    “Accordingly, purchasers of housing units in under construction projects may avail housing finance against their housing units in projects where builder/developer has not availed construction financing,” the SBP said.

    In such cases, the builder/developer will have to create mortgage charge over project’s land in favor of bank/DFI through an agreement. The charge will only be vacated after completion of the project and transfer of housing units to the purchasers. Moreover, the builder/developer will comply with all other provisions of subject guidelines, it added.

    Any bank/DFI can provide housing finance to a purchaser of a housing unit in such under construction projects.

    READ MORE: SBP launches webpage for promoting house financing

    However, if the purchaser wants to avail financing from a bank/DFI other than the mortgagee bank/DFI, then it will have to obtain NOC from the mortgagee bank/DFI in this regard.

    Moreover, financing bank/DFI of such purchasers will also be required to enter into bilateral arrangement with the mortgagee bank/DFI to secure its risk.

    With regard to the requirement of informed consent under guidelines, it is clarified that the builder/developer will be responsible to arrange written informed consent from the customers who intend to purchase housing units from their own sources without availing mortgage finance.

    The letters of written consent of such purchasers will be submitted to the bank/DFI in original by the builder/developer.

    The builders/developers are developing and marketing a number of multi-storey projects of housing units across the country. Although these under construction projects are exposed to project completion risk and performance risk of builders/developers, many individuals are attracted to book housing units in these projects owing to their affordability and option of payments through installments.

    However, the banks/DFIs have traditionally shied away from financing to the housing units in under construction projects due to issues in availability of legally enforceable title documents and registration of mortgages as per requirements of Prudential Regulations (PR) for Housing Finance.

    It may be noted that banks/DFIs extend project financing to builders/developers for construction of multistorey housing projects after adequately securing their project and builder risks through mortgage of project land and other securities. Utilizing these already established security arrangements with the builders/developers, the banks/DFIs may also extend housing finance against housing units in multistorey housing projects. This will expand options of affordable housing to the individual borrowers. This will also facilitate banks/DFIs in ensuring repayment/ settlement of their project financing through conversion of the same in housing finance.

  • SBP issues KIBOR rates on February 25, 2022

    SBP issues KIBOR rates on February 25, 2022

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday issued the Karachi Interbank Offered Rates (KIBOR) as of February 25, 2022.

    Following are the latest KIBOR rates:

     TenorBIDOFFER
    1 – Week9.7310.23
    2 – Week9.7810.28
    1 – Month9.8910.39
    3 – Month10.3510.60
    6 – Month10.7711.02
    9 – Month10.8211.32
    1 – Year10.8711.37
    SBP issues KIBOR rates on February 24, 2022
  • Customers’ exchange rates on February 25, 2022

    Customers’ exchange rates on February 25, 2022

    KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday issued customers’ exchange rates for February 25, 2022. The exchange rate is on the basis of weighted average rates of commercial banks.

    The SBP said the data is compiled and disseminated for information only. These exchange rates are estimates that quoted by various commercial banks to their clients.

    The banks provide their indicative exchange rates for commercial transactions with customers.

    CURRENCYBUYINGSELLING
    AED48.229148.3401
    AUD127.4254127.7125
    CAD138.4768138.7960
    CHF191.7645192.2155
    CNY28.038528.1011
    EUR198.6227199.0920
    GBP237.7227238.2703
    JPY1.53641.5400
    SAR47.189947.3003
    USD177.0187177.4415
    Customers’ exchange rates on February 24, 2022