Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and 1-Link Guarantee Limited (1-Link) signed an agreement for local POS Switch in Pakistan. The signing ceremony was held at HBL's head office in Karachi between Faiq Sadiq, Group Head Payment Services, HBL and Faisal Ejaz Khan, CEO, 1-Link. Nauman K Dar, President, HBL was also present at the occasion.
Under this agreement, proprietary cards issued by 1-Link member banks (currently around 6 million) which are ATM use only cards will be accepted on HBL POS to conduct retail transactions. This arrangement would also allow local banks to issue proprietary debit cards for domestic use only. In addition, loyalty redemption transactions would also be conducted on HBL POS for card based loyalty programs hosted by 1-Link.
"HBL is proud to partner with 1-Link on such an initiative, which is first of its kind in Pakistan. HBL has recently launched its POS acquiring services and has plans to deploy over 15,000 POS terminals in the coming months. This arrangement with 1-Link will definitely support HBL and the industry to build a digital payments eco-system which will encourage the electronic POS transactions in the country." Faiq commented. Faisal Ejaz Khan said, "1-Link is proud to partner with HBL, as HBL being Pakistan's largest commercial Bank gives 1-Link the opportunity to work on such new initiatives. All proprietary cards issued by 1-Link member banks will now be accepted not only on ATMs but also by merchants on HBL POS terminals. Local POS Switch will surely be one of the services with a prosperous future in the payment industry."-PR