Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Reza Baqir said Monday that owing to the revolutionary initiatives introduced by the central bank, the e-banking transactions were recorded at around $500 billion during the last fiscal year (2020-21).
Addressing the launching ceremony of ‘Raast’, Instant Digital Payment System, he said that e-banking transactions were considerably more than the country’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which currently stands at $370 billion.
He said the e-banking transactions were showing growth of around 30 per cent annually. “If it is $500 billion now, you can imagine at which pace we are digitizing,” he remarked.
Reza Baqir said that Raast digital platform, the person-to-person transaction system, was made by SBP under the Prime Minister’s vision to ensure outreach of the banking system to all citizens of the country.
Rasst is part of the national payment strategy which was launched by SBP in November 2019. The World Bank President had launched it and helped in developing this strategy.
He said it was a technologically advanced system and was currently executed only in a few countries including Malaysia, Turkey, Australia, United Kingdom and partially in the United States.
He said that there were around 190 million mobile subscribers in the country whereas only 80 million people had bank accounts, meaning that there were over 100 million people who have mobile phones but do not possess bank accounts.
So there is a huge potential for enhancing financial inclusion, he said and expressed the hope that Raast programme would bridge this gap.
The SBP Governor said that Raast was different from other programmes as it would facilitate free-cost transactions within seconds. He expressed the hope that people would like the new system and benefit from it.
He said that the SBP had taken many initiatives for pacing up the process of digitization. The Point of Sales (POS) machines also witnessed growth of 50 per cent and are expected to grow at a fast pace.
Reza said that the state bank would give 5 licenses for establishing digital banks to cater to the needs of common people and facilitate them to open bank accounts remotely
He said that this banking system would be established on the lines of Roshan Digital Account that was introduced for overseas Pakistanis.
He said the bank had recently launched low cost housing, under which the central bank facilitated those who were unable to take bank loans, adding Rs131 billion loans were approved by banks this year, showing 100 per cent growth against last year.
He said that there were around 190 million mobile subscribers in the country whereas only 80 million people had bank accounts, meaning that there were over 100 million people who have mobile phones but do not possess bank accounts.