KARACHI – The payment systems infrastructure in the country was upgraded during the first quarter (July-September) of the current year, as 99 new automated teller machines (ATMs) were added to the e-banking infrastructure bringing the ATM network to 4,562.
According to State Bank’s first quarterly report on payments systems released, 60 more bank branches have been upgraded to Real Time Online Branches (RTOBs) while the number of plastic cards (Debit and Credit Cards) also increased by 5.23 percent, compared to the previous quarter.
The report stated that the value of ATM transactions increased by about 5 percent to Rs 262,524 million with the same number of transactions as the last quarter; thus increasing the average value per transaction to Rs 8,486 compared to Rs 8,037 in the previous quarter.
It said the contribution of other modes of e-banking is also rising despite comparatively insignificant numbers and aggregates value of transactions and added that the utility bills payments through available modes (ATMs, internet, mobiles etc) of e-banking transactions is also increasing.
The report highlighted the increased usage of cross-border transactions increased by 154 percent in volume and 19 percent in value. Large value payments through Pakistan Real-time Interbank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM), however, fell by 6.51 percent in volume and 11.35 percent in value of transactions.
The SBP Report pointed out that the volume and value of paper-based retail payments during the quarter under review were 82.959 million and Rs 35.60 trillion, respectively, showing a corresponding decline of 9.44 and 12.18 percent.
It also pointed out that the volume and value of e-banking transactions during the quarter reached 52.58 million and Rs 4.7 trillion respectively. Its contribution to total retail payment transactions was 38.80 percent in term of volume and 11.55 percent in term of value, the report noted.
