KARACHI: Digital channels accounted for 92 per cent of total retail payment transactions in the fiscal year 2025-26, up from 88 per cent in FY25, according to an annual report released by the State Bank on Tuesday.

The ‘Annual Report on Payment Systems’ said that out of 14.3 billion transactions conducted through formal banking channels, 13.2bn transactions were conducted through digital channels, representing year-on-year growth of 65pc.

Retail payments through formal banking channels registered a significant growth during FY26, reaching 14.3bn transactions valued at Rs673 trillion, representing year-on-year gro­wth of 58pc in volume and 10pc in value.

Digital channels continued to gain traction as consumers increasingly adopted mobile banking apps, internet banking, and e-money wallets for everyday payments, said the report.

Mobile phone-based solutions led the digital surge with over 11.1bn transactions, registering a 79pc growth, while internet banking portals processed 300 million transactions, up 15pc from the previous fiscal year.

The report said the expansion of digital acceptance infrastructure at merchant/retailers’ outlets further supported this growth.

The Point of Sale (POS) network expanded to 337,791 terminals across 295,367 merchant locations, supporting nearly 1.5m daily card payments, up from one million in the previous fiscal year.

“E-commerce payments also continued to gain traction, with account-based online payments accounting for 96pc of total e-commerce transactions conducted through banking channels,” according to the report.

The number of branchless banking mobile app users rose to 99.1m, while banks’ mobile app users reached 30.4m, highlighting the continuing shift of everyday banking activities towards platforms based on smartphones.

“A major development in payment infrastructure was the introduction of PRISM+ in August last year, marking the transition of the RTGS system to the ISO-20022 standard,” the report noted.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2026