State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) presented its second payment systems quarterly report for the fiscal year 2021-22, covering the months of October through December of that year. According to the report, digital banking is becoming more popular in the country.
According to the report, the use of electronic banking (e-banking) in Pakistan continued to expand as it recorded a growth of 10.7% in volume and 22.8% in value of transactions during the second quarter (October-December) of the fiscal year 2021-22 on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
The SBP statement reads, “E-banking comprises transactions conducted via electronic channels including real-time online branches, ATMs, mobile banking, internet banking, call centre banking, point of sales (POS) and e-commerce.”
“The growth in e-banking transactions is much steeper relative to paper-based transactions, albeit the value of transactions is higher in the case of the latter.”
The volume and value of paper-based transactions increased by 3.4% and 12.2% respectively.
It further said, while the volume of e-banking transactions is almost four times higher at 400 million than paper-based transactions at 101.4 million, the value of transactions of the former stands at Rs33.4 trillion compared with Rs41.6 trillion for paper-based transactions.
Across-the-board growth in e-banking included expansion in both mobile and internet banking with a double-digit increase in the value and volume of transactions during the second quarter of FY22.
The number of mobile banking transactions was 94 million, while their value reached Rs2.2 trillion, which translated into 18.8% and 35.4% growth respectively on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Meanwhile, the number of mobile banking users grew 5% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, reaching a total of 11.9 million customers.
Internet banking users reached 6.9 million, conducting 33.8 million transactions, amounting to Rs2.4 trillion, which translated into a strong 13.9% growth in terms of volume and a 28% surge in value compared to the preceding quarter.
The upswing continued in the retail sector, which increasingly adopted digital payments. During the quarter under review, a total of 31.4 million transactions amounting to Rs178.1 billion were processed via 92,153 POS terminals.
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