KARACHI: Branchless banking (BB) transactions have crossed the 1 billion mark in a single quarter for the first time ever, according to the latest number released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Among these, bill payments and mobile top-ups account for 22 percent, while fund transfers represent an impressive 43 percent of total BB transactions during the quarter that ended on December 31, 2023.
According to the SBP, banks, and MFBs have processed 1,088.3 million branchless banking transactions amounting to Rs5,057 billion in value during October-December 2023, marking a YoY growth of 12 percent by volume and 12.5 percent in value.
Mobile Wallet (MW) transfers had the largest share (Rs. 965 billion | 19 percent) in transactions by value followed by transfers from MWs to customers’ banking accounts (Rs. 756 billion | 15 percent).
It’s worth noting that the average transaction sizes differed slightly, with Rs4,646 recorded during the quarter compared to the same period last year. Average daily transactions appreciated by 12 percent YoY to 12 million in total compared to 10.8 million last year.
Punjab accounted for 62 percent (71 million) of the BB accounts while Sindh ranked second (23.3 million) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa came in third (14.7 million).
The total number of branchless banking accounts clocked in at 114.6 million during the quarter. Gender-wise segregation of these accounts showed that males dominated the space with over 79.5 million accounts while 35.1 million were female-owned accounts.
