Easypaisa, Pakistan’s first Fintech payment gateway is parting ways with Telenor Pakistan, the company which found it back in 2009 and had offered the service as a product up until now, official media sources have reported.
According to sources, the product is being transferred to Tameer Bank, which was completely acquired by the Telenor Group (Parent company of Telenor Pakistan) a few months ago. The move is aimed at separating Easypaisa’s balance sheet which would now come under Tameer Bank and will have nothing to do with Telenor Pakistan, in addition to all its operations being managed by the bank and not the mobile operator. Market experts believe that the transfer would benefit Telenor in the long run.
Once the modalities of the transfer are over and Easypaisa becomes completely independent from Telenor Pakistan, it will have its own PR agency, a separate staff, and easy access to different vendors it may need for running its daily operations.
However, Easypaisa will continue to use Telenor Pakistan’s office space in some cities for the time being and will be charged for it. Easypaisa, in turn, will also charge Telenor Pakistan for the services it provides to the latter. Nevertheless, Telenor Pakistan’s and its brainchild Easypaisa’s deep integration will remain intact for some time to come.
Some rumours are circulating in the market related to the renaming of Tameer Bank to Telenor Bank and Alibaba.com’s (Chinese e-commerce company) interest in getting a payment gateway in Pakistan.
Easypaisa, however, cannot be integrated with global payment systems and that limits its usage and potential. Pakistan’s e-commerce industry is set to surpass the billion-dollar mark in a few years and that’s why groups like Alibaba and the likes of it are interested in Fin techs like Easypaisa. These giants will ensure that the product reaches its true potential by making it compatible with global payment systems.
What is sure to happen is that Fin techs like Easypaisa will take over the market with a storm. According to the market guru Nadeem Hussain, ex-CEO of Tameer Bank and founder of Easypaisa, “Banks will open up to Fin techs and allow them to sit atop the bank, and offer services (payments, remittances etc.) to the users that the banks have failed to do up till now.”
Hussain further revealed at a workshop held at Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS) that the banks, unless they offer themselves as a platform for Fintech startups, they will be wiped out of the business eventually. He aptly explained the scenario by relating it to how Android and IoS opened up to thousands of App developers to use the former as a platform to offer services to end-users.
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