KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday asked all banks to expedite adopting PayPak cards in order to ensure the safety and security of payment instruments and consumers’ money.

After the recent Habib Bank ATM scam which resulted into loss of Rs10.2 million and a sense of insecurity emerged among debit card holders in general, SBP came out with this suggestion to prevent loopholes in the banking system that may lead to such frauds.

While highlighting SBP’s full support for PayPak card adoption by all banks, Deputy Governor State Bank, Mr Jameel Ahmad, encouraged the banks to devise strategies for increasing their uptake of PayPak cards.

He was addressing senior banking and financial executives at the ‘PayPak – The Way Forward’ – an event held at SBP head office in Karachi.

The deputy governor advised banks to step up their efforts for rationalising the cost of digital transactions by reviewing Mer­chant Discount Rate, increasing access points, and ensuring the safety and security of payment instruments to safeguard consumers’ money. He stressed the need for adoption of domestic payment scheme - PayPak card - by banks in order to provide a cost effective, ubiquitous and digital payment instrument to consumers.

The deputy governor in his speech highlighted the prevailing use of cash and financial exclusion in the country that reduces the overall economic efficiency and hampers the development of financial sector to its actual potential.

Citing key infrastructural gaps in electronic payments methods, Mr Ahmad highlighted that SBP’s key objective is to build a modern and robust payment system in the country that enables provision of cost effective and easily available Digital Financial Services (DFS) to the general public.

The deputy governor further talked about the importance of domestic payment schemes in the development of key payment infrastructure by incentivising both the consumers and merchants while providing inter-operability.

Syed Irfan Ali, executive director SBP, also talked about the importance of collaboration and partnerships of banks with non-bank methods such as Fintechs to provide efficient and affordable payment solutions to consumers.

He advised all banks to comply with SBP’s guidelines of EMV (Europay, MaterCard and Visa) compliance for payment card security by the stipulated timelines, as no exemption or relaxation will be allowed to any bank beyond June 30, 2018.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2017