SBP releases Q3FY23 report, e-banking transactions grow by 4.3%

The State Bank of Pakistan released its third quarterly review of Payment Systems on Monday, stating the volume of overall e-banking transactions increased by 4.3 per cent and the value of the transactions surged by 11.2 per cent

According to the central bank, overall e-banking transactions increased due to increasing collaboration between banks and fintech firms and the provision of efficient, accessible and user-friendly digital payments platforms for customers.

The State Bank of Pakistan, in its third quarterly review of Payment Systems released here on Monday, stated that the volume of overall e-banking transactions increased by

The quarterly review covered the period January to March 2023 and presents major highlights and comprehensive analysis. As of quarter-end Q3 of FY23, there were 9.3 million internet banking, 15.3 million mobile phone banking and 48.4 million branchless banking app users, the review summarised adding that holders of e-wallets- issued by Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) – reached 1.6 million.

According to the review increasing collaboration between banks and fintech companies has provided an efficient, accessible and user-friendly digital payments platform for customers, allowing a greater number of customers to use digital channels for making payments.

Customers using Raast for online Person-to-Person (P2P) funds transfers have increased to 29.2 million users from 25.8 million users in the previous quarter while P2P value and volume of transactions processed through Raast during the quarter grew by 92.3% and 55.6% reaching to 41.2 million transactions amounting to Rs. 872.8 billion respectively, the quarterly review stated.

Internet and Mobile Phone banking transactions volume also grew from 200.7 million to 220.5 million depicting a growth of 9.9% while value increased from Rs. 9,167.6 billion to Rs. 10,922.3 billion showing a 19.1% increase.

The number of transactions through Point-of-Sale (POS) also witnessed growth with transactions volume increasing by 6.8% and value by 10.1%. Value of e-Commerce transactions processed by banks witnessed an increase of 7.1% and reached Rs 36.6 billion by the end of quarter Q3 FY23, it further added.

The number of POS machines installed across the country reached 112,302 by the end of Q3-FY23 while there were 96,975 POS machines in the same quarter last year. The number of ATMs installed in the country also increased from 16,897 in Q3 FY22 to 17,678 in Q3 FY23.

Large Value Settlements processed through RTGS (PRISM), the real-time gross settlement system of Pakistan, increased by 4.6% in volume and 13.9% in value as compared to the previous quarter.

Further, the volume of paper-based transactions declined from 95.5 million in Q2 FY23 to 94.3 million in Q3 FY23. However, its value increased by Rs 1,646.6 billion (3.0%) during the quarter.