KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan and the World Bank are working together to beef up security checks on electronic payment transactions as technological advancement is playing a pivotal role in financial inclusion of unbaked people in the country, an official of the central bank said.
“The State Bank of Pakistan in collaboration with the World Bank and other stakeholders has been striving to strengthen the electronic delivery channels through automation and digitization.
We are mindful of the critical role of technology in achieving the strategic objective of national financial inclusion,” said Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Executive Director, State Bank of Pakistan at the 14th annual conference on e-Banking.
“The State Bank of Pakistan is currently working with the World Bank experts to develop the future payment system specific to Pakistan,” he added. The central bank is in the process to issue guidelines on Card Security and Prepaid Cards, he said.
The conference was organized by Total Communications in collaboration with 1Link and Pakistan Software House Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA).
The central banker said the alternate delivery channels like e-banking and branchless banking have emerged as supporting pillars of SBP’s vision for financial inclusion.
“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,” Khan said.
“A total of 100 million transactions worth 526 billion rupees were carried out during July-September 2015. More than 13 million m-wallets have been opened so far and these numbers are increasing at a faster pace,” he said.
