Pakistan, World Bank Collaborating on Modernized, Secure e-Payments
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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the World Bank have announced plans to collaborate on a new electronic payment system designed specifically for use in Pakistan. SBP Executive Director Muhammad Ashraf Khan announced the collaboration Thursday.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the World Bank have announced plans to collaborate on a new electronic payment system designed specifically for use in Pakistan. SBP Executive Director Muhammad Ashraf Khan announced the collaboration Thursday.
Khan’s announcement was part of the 14th Annual e-Banking Conference, taking place this week in Pakistan. The conference brought together a combination of financial and technology companies, along with governmental entities and the World Bank to discuss various issues related to the technologies of commerce in Pakistan. Of particular interest this year is creating guidelines on payment card security and prepaid cards.
The SBP has asked for the World Bank’s assistance in enhancing security checks for electronic payments (e-payments). Technological advancements have created both new opportunities and new problems that Pakistan’s banking industry needs to address in order to maintain financial security. The nation hopes the World Bank’s resources will help it to stay abreast of these technologies, as well as find ways to bring banking to the large population of those in the country that still do not have a bank account.
In announcing the collaboration, Khan said, “The SBP in collaboration with the World Bank and other stakeholders has been striving to strengthen the electronic delivery channels through automation and digitization…over the past five years; e-banking transactions have witnessed a phenomenal growth. Volume of e-banking transactions has doubled. The number of users of internet banking has reached to over 1.8 million.”
As a result, he said, alternative means of providing financial services to the citizens of Pakistan will become key. He believes that electronic banking, alternative payment methods (like prepaid cards), and virtual banks with no physical branches should play a role in Pakistan’s future.
“A total of 100m transactions worth Rs526 billion were carried out during July-September 2015. More than 13m mobile wallets have been opened so far and these numbers are increasing at a faster pace,” he said.
Largely seen as luxuries in many developed nations, services like virtual banks and electronic banking may serve to expand Pakistan’s financial sector in remarkable new ways. Paired with programs to improve its internet and mobile infrastructure, such services could allow tens of thousands of people to gain access to financial services that were once simply too geographically remote to be practical. Giving those individuals access could spur economic inclusion, growth, and feed further modernization and development.
