ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released its Annual Payment Systems Review (PSR) for the fiscal year 2020-21, which shows strong growth in the space of digital financial transactions in the country, indicating the central banks continued pursuit for the development of a robust and efficient payments ecosystem in the country.
According to the PSR, transactions processed through SBP’s large-value payments segment, known as Real-time Inter-Bank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM), recorded Year-on-Year (YoY) growth of 60.0 percent by the number of transactions (volume) and 12.8 percent by value.
Similarly, overall e-Banking transactions registered YoY growth of 31.1 percent which highlights the substantial increase in the adaption of digital means for payments. This growth was spurred by major uptake in mobile banking (29 percent increase in the number of users, 133.6 percent and 178.7 percent increase in volume and value respectively) and internet banking (32 percent increase in the number of users, 65.1 percent, and 91.7 percent increase in volume and value respectively).
This promising growth was achieved on the back of 27 banks offering app-based banking along with other entities offering innovative payment solutions for accepting digital transactions.
During FY21, digital payments adoption for retail transactions continued to show an upward trend. Due to the active efforts of the SBP, the number of card-accepting POS machines saw a growth of 47 percent.
Transactions processed through POS machines reached as high as 88.8 million amounting to PKR 453.1 billion, showing YoY growth of 26.3 percent by volume and 24.4 percent by value of transactions.
