ISLAMABAD: Telecom operator Zong became the latest entrant to the digital payment-solutions market with the launch of ‘PayMax’, on Friday.

PayMax has been launched by Electronic Commerce Company Limited (ECCL), a fully-owned subsidiary of China Mobile Pakistan (CMPAK), the parent company of Zong.

The service — which is Zong’s answer to services such as JazzCash and EasyPaisa offered by other telecom providers — also plans to offer nano loans as well launch mobile handset financing in the near future.

Speaking at the launch even, ECCL CEO Syed Naveed Akhtar said that the PayMax digital financial application will be initially focusing on delivering P2P Money Transfer, utility bills payments, mobile loads, online payment gateway, and retail payments etc.

The application also plans to take more vendors and solutions providers on board from across sectors to offer various financial products, including nano loans, handset financing, cross border payments, insurance and merchant financing.

The company is banking on its customer base, especially in rural parts, as a target population for the PayMax service.

Initially, PayMax will allow money transfers, bill payments and other transfers to any 1-Link connected banks.

This is the second fintech product launched by Zong — it pioneered the ‘Timepey Service’ in the country in collaboration with Askari Bank in 2012, but the mobile-based banking solution was discontinued in 2016.

The Zong product is not backed by any bank, but is rather based on Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) regulations issued by SBP in 2019, under the Payment Systems and Electronic Fund Transfers Act, 2007.

Currently, JazzCash is the largest digital wallet service in the country with over 42 million subscribers and over 16 million monthly active wallets users, followed by Easypaisa with 28 million subscribers and 11 million monthly users.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022