KARACHI: Economic and financial analyst, Ateeq Ur Rehman has said that the steps taken by the SBP are quite calculative and reasonable and part of different policy initiatives for simplification, support and promotion of the digital banking sector. The initiative for Cashless Economy and Intra/Inter Bank Fund Transfer (IBFT) are Digital Fund Transfer Services by the banks for encouragement to promote adoption of digital payments in the country as a part of seamless Digital Banking Service to the public, this was discussed in length at the Mobile Commerce & Digital Banking Summit in a local Hotel, Ateeq said.

In March 2021, it was generously decided by the SBP advising banks to offer free of cost IBFT services to all their customers regardless of the size of the transaction to cope with lockdowns and other challenges amid Covid-19 pandemic.

He further said that now the SBP after reviewing the situation issued new instructions allowing banks to charge a minimum fee on high value transactions while protecting the low income segments of the population is an initiative to recover part of the cost they incur on providing IBFT services. Further the SBP has also directed banks to provide free of cost digital fund transfer services to individual customers up to aggregate sending limit of Rs 25,000 per month per account. However banks may choose to set this aggregate limit at a higher amount as well, Ateeq said.

For transactions above the aggregate limit of Rs 25,000 per account in a month, Banks may charge individual customers transaction fees of no more than 0.1 percent of the transaction amount or Rs 200, whichever is lower. The SBP has also advised all banks that all digital funds transfer transactions between different accounts within the same banks (Intra Bank Funds Transfers) shall remain free.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021