KARACHI: The Central Bank has reported 0.12 per cent decline in the volume of paper-based transactions to 361 million in fiscal year 2015 against the last years 362m transactions, however, the value of these transactions was Rs127 trillion in FY15, which reflect 10pc rise as compared to Rs115.16 trillion in FY 14.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in its report titled ‘Payment System Review’, said that the paper-based banking dominates transactions despite rapid growth in e-banking.
The report said, “The industry is working on the implementation of digital image-based cheque processing whereby clearing process is expected to become more efficient reducing the physical transmission of cheques in the clearing process.”
Rules are also being developed for clearing house and risk management framework in settlement systems, it said.
Paper-based transactions constitute around 34pc of total retail payments. During the fourth quarter (April-June) of 2014-15, nearly 92.5m transactions (Rs34.6tr) were executed using paper instruments, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 8pc in volume and 18pc in value.
Over the past five years, e-banking transactions have grown phenomenally: their volume increased by 100pc to 470m from 235m and value by 62pc to Rs35.8tr from Rs22.1tr. The previous fiscal year alone witnessed a growth rate of 16pc in volume and 6pc in value.
During FY15, the volume of ATM transactions reached 300m amounting to Rs3.2tr in value, a growth rate of 16pc and 21pc, respectively, over FY14. Of these, 288.89m (Rs2.66tr) were cash withdrawals, which means they contributed around 96pc to the volume and 83pc to the value of ATM transactions.
