Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday released statistics detailing the rise of branchless banking accounts in the country by 73pc to 23.69m till March this year. Significant rise has been observed in number of accounts and active accounts which increased by 19% and 15% respectively, compared to previous quarter. Similarly, increase in number of transactions and number of agents has also been seen during the quarter under review of Jan-March 2017.
The value of branchless banking transactions saw a fall this quarter to reach Rs564.4b. from Rs. 596.9 billion in last quarter. The major decline in the value of transactions was seen in bulk G2P payments. The reductions in value of G2P payments are transitory in nature and likely to improve in the later quarters. Female customers increased by 26.8pc in Jan-March 2017 quarter with digital accounts reaching 5.2m. The number of females having mobile accounts reached to 22.1pc of total mobile accounts. Punjab has a 60pc share in branchless banking accounts throughout the country, statistics revealed.
