KARACHI: 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.
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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 internet-based 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. All these trends indicate a growing preference among Pakistanis for digital channels over traditional OTC options.
Encouragingly, the number of e-wallets registered with EMIs also increased by 15 percent to 2.7 million during the quarter marking a more than twofold increase in last four quarters. In addition, over 67 million m-wallets were registered with Branchless Banking (BB) service providers.
In the same quarter, RTGS processed 1.5 million large-value payments, amounting to R 273 trillion. Breaking down the values of RTGS, 29 percent were attributed to funds transfer settlements, 70 percent to government securities settlements, and 1 percent to clearing transactions settlements.
Card-based transactions at ATMs, POS, and e-commerce also experienced notable growth during the quarter, totalling 235 million, up by 10 percent, 65 million, rose by 10 percent, and 11 million, surged by 13 percent transactions respectively.
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. Volume of transactions on POS machines grew by 10 percent whereas POS network itself grew by 3 percent 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.
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 Rs 273 trillion, maintaining an exceptional availability rate of 99.99 percent.
However, in terms of value, over-the-counter (OTC) transactions constituted 85 percent share of the overall retail transactions. In the same quarter, more than 90 percent of the retail fund transfers and 73 percent of bill payments/ mobile top-ups were conducted using digital channels. Last quarter, this share was 88 percent and 68 percent respectively.
Notable developments during the quarter were issuance of regulatory instructions for Raast P2M services to facilitate digital payment acceptance for merchants and businesses, signing of MoU by SBP with Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) to establish a framework of cooperation between Buna and Raast for cross-border payments, inclusion of a new EMI, M/s Akhtar Fuiou Technologies Pvt. Ltd, with the aim to build digital payment platform for agri-economy, entrance of two banks in POS acquiring business, and lastly and issuance of instructions on standardisation of purpose list for electronic funds transfer to provide convenience to the customers.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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