KARACHI: In a significant milestone for Pakistan’s financial sector, Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has announced that cardholders in Pakistan can now seamlessly add their Visa cards to Google Wallet, enabling secure and convenient digital transactions.
Starting from March 13, 2025, Visa cardholders of HBL, Bank Alfalah, UBL, and Meezan Bank can add their Visa cards to their Google Wallet on Android and Wear OS devices, allowing payments to be made wherever contact-less options are accepted. In addition, some more banks including JS Bank, Allied Bank, Zindigi, and Easypaisa will be available soon.
The announcement was made yesterday at a market wide event hosted by Visa, attended by senior members of the Pakistani financial industry.
This integration supports the growing demand for digital payment options in Pakistan, offering locals and tourists like with the convenience of using their mobile phones for contact-less payments.
Security is the cornerstone of Google Pay as it is based on tokenization, a security technology that replaces sensitive cardholder credentials, such as a 16-digit primary account number (PAN), with a token number. Tokenization helps reduce fraud & improve card authorisation rates.
By fostering this collaboration, Visa and Google are working towards enhancing the payment landscape in Pakistan, ensuring that both cardholders and local businesses benefit from the latest in digital payments technology.
Umar Khan, Country Manager, for Visa in Pakistan and Afghanistan was excited and said that this shows Visa continued commitment to enhancing Pakistan’s digital payment ecosystem through this partnership with Google.
Pakistan is on the growth path of digitisation, and consumer demand is ripe, as the share of digital transactions in total retail payments processed by banks and EMIs rose to 84 per cent in 2024. The enablement of Google Wallet will support this demand and improve the customer experience through improved security and convenience. As a bonus, Pakistanis can use Google Wallet when they travel so they can enjoy the same seamless and secure experience worldwide, he added.
Farhan Qureshi, Country Director for Google Pakistan said that Pakistan’s digital payments landscape is evolving rapidly, and with more people embracing digital transactions, Google Wallet provides a secure, seamless, and efficient way to make payments, shop, and travel.
It will enable Pakistanis to tap-and-pay in stores, check out seamlessly online, and easily access their boarding passes when they travel, he added.
Google Wallet helps keep everything protected in one place, no matter where they go. More importantly, this launch will go a long way in supporting financial inclusion in Pakistan and unlock economic opportunities for all. He said that this milestone further cements Google’s unwavering commitment to Pakistan, reinforcing our belief in its digital future and potential.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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