ISLAMABAD: National Savings (NS) is pleased to introduce another important service to facilitate its customers. Withdrawal slips can now be used for third-party payments (utility bills, school fees and other expenses). Previously, these withdrawal slips were merely used for payments to oneself only.
The significant progress was made possible with National Savings taking membership of National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT), the banking clearing system having over 20 years of experience in clearing business with a strong 26 branch network covering all major cities and financial centres in the country.
NS remains the only non-banking member of the banking clearing system and its 238 branches have become a part of NIFT’s clearing grid and are transacting on an average 2,000 cheques a day. This service of withdrawal slips will enable savings to the account of National Savings to effectively become an operational account and at par with any normal bank account.
The NS withdrawal slip will act as a cross cheque and could be deposited in the third-party account with any bank, anywhere in Pakistan for clearance through banking clearing system.
Congratulating National Savings on the launch of this service, NIFT Chief Executive Haider Wahab said, “We see a great transformation happening at National Savings and are excited to be involved and support such initiatives.” He added that NIFT’s focus has always been on delivering a seamless payment experience for customers.
“We are determined to provide industry proven and secure solutions for the financial sector of Pakistan. NIFT has been enhancing its digital payment capabilities for the last one year as we believe in harnessing the power of digital to transform the customer experience and support the growing demand for more convenient and accessible digital payment solutions,” he said.
NS Director General Zafar Masud appreciated the support of NIFT over the last six months in extending the convenience services to their clients and continuous enhancement in the product offering. He said that third-party cheque payments are the step in that direction and the next initiative is the same-day cheque clearing facility.
He further stated that National Savings will soon be coming out with machine-readable and personalised cheques. “The next big announcement from customer service perspective after successful over 200 National Savings centres online is the introduction of MobileApp (non-financial) next month,” Masud added.
He further said that National Savings remains the largest financial institution in the country in terms of deposits (30 per cent of the total banking deposits) and a formidable force in the space of financial inclusion and social safety with more than 50 per cent investors being women.
