KARACHI: The value of mobile banking, internet banking and e-commerce transactions have more than doubled during the third quarter current fiscal year (Q3FY21) compared to the same period in FY20, the State Bank said in its latest report issued on Monday.

According to the Payment System Quarterly report, the number of internet and mobile banking users has increased significantly, up 30.5 per cent and 20.3pc, respectively during Q3FY21 over the same period last year.

During Jan-March FY21, bank customers performed 309.5 million e-Banking transactions, valuing Rs22.5 trillion and registering growth rates of 31pc by volume and 29pc by value over the same quarter in FY20, the report said.

Overall the country’s total payment transactions increased by 2pc in volume and 10pc in value when compared to the previous quarter.

During the quarter under review, the share of PRISM (Pakistan Real-time Interbank Settlement Mechanism), electronic banking and paper-based payment transactions was 64.5pc, 13.3pc and 22.2pc by value, respectively. However, in terms of volume, the share of electronic banking transactions was around 75pc, followed by 24.4pc paper instrument-based transactions

“The transaction value for PRISM increased from Rs94.9tr in the previous quarter to Rs109.3tr in the current quarter showing a growth of 15pc,” said the report.

PRISM has 50 direct participants, which include Commercial Banks, MFBs, DFIs and Central Depository Company (CDC). During the quarter under review, PRISM processed more than one million transactions valuing Rs109.4tr.

The overall use of e-Banking channels has seen an increase of 4pc in volume and 5pc in value over the previous quarter.

The number of internet and mobile banking users has also shown considerable increase during the last few quarters. The internet banking users have increased by 10pc when compared with the previous quarter, whereas it exhibited an increase of 30pc when compared with the same quarter last year.

Similarly, mobile banking users have increased by 5pc quarter on quarter, while showing an increase of 20pc when compared with the same period last year.

E-commerce merchants are also on an inclining trend in the last few quarters. When compared with the previous quarter, e-commerce merchants have increased by 5pc, however, compared with the same period last year, a staggering growth of 62pc has been observed, said the report.

The total number of ATMs in the country has reached 16,175 at the quarter-end. These ATMs collectively processed 153.5m transactions valuing around Rs2.1tr. Despite the availability of other banking facilities on ATM, the machines are mostly used for cash withdrawals in the country.

“In total, cash withdrawals through ATMs have the highest share of 96pc by volume,” said the report.

Most of the uptake in e-banking transactions was seen in internet banking and mobile banking transactions. The volume of mobile banking transactions reached 51.7m, (up 144pc) valuing Rs1.3tr (up 178pc) compared to 21.2m transactions valuing 467.5 billion in the same quarter, last year. The number of registered mobile phone banking users reached 9.8m showing an increase of 20pc from the same period last year.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2021