KARACHI: In a rapidly evolving international payments arena, Pakistan is also leaping forward as fiscal year 2013-14 registered a robust growth in usage of electronic banking and payments.

According to the annual payment system review for 2013-14, issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday, country’s electronic and mobile banking witnessed visible progress and emerged as fastest growing payment channels among all alternative delivery channels (ADCs) in terms of volume and value.

Internet banking shows an impressive growth of 80 per cent, reaching 17 million transactions and mobile banking shows a substantial increase of 149pc, reaching Rs 67.2bn during the year.

Retail payments during 2013-14 also registered an inspiring growth and point of sale transactions reached 24m, valuing Rs124bn. These transactions are 33pc higher in volume and 38.5pc in value.

ATM transactions also recorded notable increase and stood at 258m of value Rs2.6 trillion, showing a growth rate of around 30pc in volume and value. Whereas, volume and value of call centre and interactive voice response (IVR) banking was 0.67m and Rs9.5bn, respectively, showing growth rates of 4pc in volume and 17pc in value.

The report further discloses that real-time online banking transactions increased to around 98.5m in terms of volume and Rs30.2tr in value, showing a growth of around 11pc each. In large value payments systems, during the fiscal year 2013-14.

Real-time gross settlement processed over 600,000 payments worth Rs149tr as compared to 488,018 transactions worth Rs162tr in 2012-13, showing an increase of 23pc while the value showed a decrease of 7.7pc.

Innovative products and channels are continuously being introduced by different financial institutions and payment operators in financial markets across the globe.

On the one hand, the proliferation of electronic payment products, like e-wallets, m-wallets, multi-purpose cards and smart applications enabled by new technologies, like Near Field Communications (NFC) cards and MPOS is being witnessed. On the other hand, a variety of non-bank players, like Payment System Operators (PSOs) and Payment System Providers (PSPs) are entering the market for collaborative products and service innovations.

SBP has been promoting efficiency, security, innovation, and mass acceptability while ensuring competition and a level-playing field for all payment participants.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2014