KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan has come up with a policy enabling Person-to-Person fund transfers in the country through Raast, Pakistan’s Instant Payment System developed by the Central Bank.
Raast—an Urdu word which means correct and direct—offers an instant, reliable and zero-cost digital payment system to the people of Pakistan. SBP believes that the launch of Raast P2P service will not only provide a convenient and hassle free digital fund transfer service to customers but will provide an efficient and enabling payments infrastructure that would pave the way for digitization of the economy and promotion of digital financial services in the country, SBP statement said on Thursday.
SBP has provided an explanatory video on YouTube and SBP’s website that explains to the public in simple terms how to make payments and transfer funds using Raast. The SBP Circular is available at: https://www.sbp.org.pk/disd/2022/C1.htm
Under Raast Person-to-Person (P2P) fund transfers and settlement services, bank customers will be able to send and receive funds in their accounts using their bank’s mobile application, internet banking or over the counter services.
For customers’ facilitation, they can set their registered mobile phone number as their Raast ID and link it to their preferred International Bank Account Number (IBAN) using the bank’s mobile application, internet banking, or visiting their bank branch.
Once a customer has set her/his mobile phone number as the Raast ID, others can send money to her/him using her/his mobile phone number without the need to know the account number or any other details. Bank customers can still use Raast service for sending or receiving funds using their IBANs even if they do not have a Raast ID or prefer to use their IBAN.
SBP has directed all banks to make Raast Person-to-Person fund transfer service available on at least three customer channels including mobile application, internet banking and branch counters. The list of banks completing the necessary technological upgrades and other needed preparations ,and offering Raast P2P services to their account holders is available SBP’s landing page.
It will also show the progress of remaining banks to integrate with Raast: https://www.sbp.org.pk/dfs/Raast-P2P.html
The banks complying with this new system included Summit Bank . Telenor MFB, Meezan Bank, Bank Al Habib, Habib Metro Bank, Bank of Punjab, Soneri Bank, Bank of Khyber , MCB Bank, HBL Microfinance Bank and Samba Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank.
SBP has directed banks to ensure that funds successfully transferred through Raast should be credited into the recipients’ accounts within 20 seconds of receiving the credit advice from Raast system. In order to promote the use of digital financial services in the country, banks have been advised not to levy any charges on Raast related services and all transactions conducted through Raast would be free for end customers.
