KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is all set to launch the person-to-merchant (P2M) online payment system on its instant payment system - Raast. The new P2M system will enable the merchants and small businesses to receive instant payments from their customers.
Addressing the 21st conference on ‘Future Banking Summit 2023’ organized by Total Communication on Tuesday, Qazi Shoaib Ahmad, Director, Payment Systems Policy & Oversight Department, State Bank said that SBP’s Raast is one of the most successful payment system and since its launch, over 32 million account holders have been registered with Raast and 225 million transactions amounting to Rs4.6 trillion have been done through Raast platform.
Now, more features are being added in the Raast payment system, he said and added that the after the successful implementation of Person-to-Person (P2P), the SBP has planned to launch P2M and expected to be formally launched in the coming months.
Payments from customers: SBP plans to launch QR Code-based ‘P2M’ system by 2023
“P2M has also been deployed in the first week of September six entities including Bank Alfalah, MCB Bank, Allied Bank, JS Bank, Easypaisa and 1Link have already been on board on P2M.While more banks will be on board on the P2M to facilitate their customers for instant payments,” he added.
He informed that state bank has already issued standards on QR code and believed that QR payment base P2M will be most useful utility for the unbanked population.
Talking about the digital currencies, he said that currently, the state bank is learning that how the digital currencies are working globally to understand different dimensions of CBDC.
On the occasion, Nadeem Hussain, Coach at Raqami Bank, said that the five digital banks, which have already got SBP’s license last week are going to revolutionize the lending landscape in the country.
He said that digital banks are expected to reduce the bank account opening and lending duration for corporate entities to facilitate them.
Zohaib Khan, Chairman, P@SHA, said urged upon the banks to facilitate IT and software freelancers in freely moving their foreign earnings inside and outside Pakistan. The increased facilitation would help increasing foreign currency inflows in the country.
Naveed Ali Baig, CEO, Innovative Pvt. Ltd. compared the digital banking landscape in Pakistan with its neighbourhood and peer countries. He said Iran was far ahead Pakistan in terms of deploying ATM machines and point-of-sales (POS).
Total Communications awarded two special awards. The award for digital banking goes to Bank Alfalah, while the award for deploying the higher number of ATMs in the past one-year goes to MCB Bank.
The one-day conference also features two fireside chants on (1) Data Analytics and APIs: Creating a Competitive Edge and (2) Fintechs: From disrupters to Enablers. It also held three panel discussions on unlocking next-gen engagement in digital banking, block chain technology and the future of banking and cyber security at the core of digital transformation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023