Payment Systems Review unveiled: Q2 Raast transactions soar 82pc

KARACHI: Pakistan’s instant payment system – Raast - launched by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), has witnessed promising growth and number of transactions processed through Raast rose by 82 percent during the second quarter of this fiscal year (Q2FY23).

The State Bank on Tuesday released its first and second quarterly report of Payment Systems for the FY23 covering the period July to December 2022. The report presents major highlights of payments ecosystem in the country and comprehensive analysis of transactions processed through the payment’s infrastructure.

According to Payment System Review (PSR), Raast, which is an initiative by the SBP to promote instant end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses, and government entities, has shown positive growth in number of users and transactions since its inception. As of now December, there are 25.8 million registered Raast users up from 21.1 million in previous quarter.

During the quarter under review, number of transactions processed through Raast increased by 82.2 percent to 214,813,000. While, in terms of value grew the transactions increased by 147 percent to Rs 578.6 billion end of second quarter compared to Rs 234.1 billion end of first quarter of FY23.

Payment Systems Infrastructure Quarterly Review of Q2-FY23 shows an ongoing increasing trend in payments through digital channels. During the quarter, network of POS machines has expanded by 2.3 percent reaching to 108,899 machines by end of Dec22.

In addition to this, both e-banking and paper-based transactions also witnessed growth during the current quarter. A total of 514.6 million e-banking transactions were processed by Banks and MFB with value of PKR 42.5 trillion showing a growth of 12.6 percent by volume and 6.5 percent by value.

Number of internet and mobile phone banking users registered with Banks/MFBs have grown by 15 percent to 10 million and 17 percent to 15 million respectively. Mobile phone banking transaction mounted up by 26 percent to Rs 5323 billion end of December 2023. While internet transactions increased by 2 percent to Rs 3845 billion end of second quarter of this fiscal year.

During the quarter, banks and MFBs have on-boarded 525 new e-commerce merchants making a total of 5,954 as of Dec-22. In the same quarter, Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) have opened 433,851 new e-wallet accounts reaching 1.4 million accounts in total.

As of end Q1-FY23, there were 17,380 ATMs in the country which has now increased to 17,547 ATMs by end Q2-FY23. Average up-time of these ATMs during Q2-FY23 was 96.4 percent which was 95.6 percent in previous quarter.

Since past few quarters, an increasing trend in shift towards is observed. With the addition of EMIs in Pakistan’s payments ecosystem, people have started to adopt digital instruments for payments. As of Dec-22, total payment cards issued in Pakistan stood at 46.5 million of which, 44.7 million are issued by banks/MFBs while the remaining 1.8 million are issued by EMIs.

In addition, there is an increasing trend in overall Large-Value Settlements (LVS) and Retail Transactions by both volume and value indicating a healthy payments ecosystem. During the quarter Q2-FY23, number of LVS processed through PRISM grew by 5.4 percent with value increasing by 11.3 percent reaching to R 150.5 trillion.

Around 59 percent of all PRISM transactions pertains to government securities and 37 percent to customers and 3rd party funds transfers. Although volume of ecommerce transactions declined by 8.4 percent its value increased by 2.2 percent to Rs 34.2 billion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023