Mobile banking accounts in the country climbed to 1.8 million registering what the central bank described it a remarkable growth of 25 percent during the first quarter of FY13. According to Branchless Banking Newsletter issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Wednesday, during July-September FY13 the branchless banking (BB) customers conducted almost 31.5 million transactions worth Rs 139 billion. The average size of each transaction was Rs 4,420, while the average number of transaction per day increased to 0.349 million. The accounts’ activity level has also improved considerably during the quarter at the back of significant growth of 84% in Level ‘0’ accounts and 7% growth in Level ‘1’ accounts. These accounts are opened at the agents’ location largely by those who have traditionally been excluded from the banking services. The agents’ network has reached to 31,637 as of 30th September, 2012 from 29,525 as on 30th June, 2012 registering an increase of 7 percent. It may be pointed out that transaction limits for Level ‘0’ & Level ‘1’ accounts are Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 per day respectively. Bills payments & mobile top-ups remained the dominating activity during July-September 2012 quarter with 45 percent share in total numbers, followed by person to person (over the counter) fund transfers with a share of 38 percent.
Mobile banking transactions hit Rs 139b in 1QFY13
