Asia ripe for Islamic finance as fintech comes to the fore
IFSB head sees capacity building and international standards required

KAZUKI KAGAYA, Nikkei senior staff writer

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Asia-ripe-for-Isla...

KUALA LUMPUR -- The potential for growth of Islamic finance in the Asian market is much bigger than might be expected, said Zahid ur Rehman Khokher, acting secretary-general of the Islamic Financial Services Board, in a recent interview with the Nikkei Asian Review.

Speaking at the organization's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, he also discussed the developing role of fintech within the sector, and the IFSB's role in setting standards for the application of information technology in Islamic finance.

According to IFSB statistics, global Islamic finance including bank assets stood at an estimated $1,893 billion as of the end of 2016. Asia, excluding Middle Eastern oil producing countries, accounted for about 22% of the total.

But Zahid feels that the region's growing populations provide fertile ground for expansion.

"Islamic finance has enormous potential for growth in the Asian market," he said.

He cited microfinance as a service that could be an area of great strength. "Some of the key Islamic banking markets in the world are in the Asian region, while Islamic capital markets are also flourishing in many countries, with many others actively exploring opportunities in Islamic finance," he said, referring in particular to Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the world's three largest Muslim-majority countries.

He noted the importance of Islamic microfinance in addressing issues of financial inclusion and improving participation in the financial sector, highlighting that "innovations in fintech, such as crowdfunding are also beginning to play a part in Islamic finance."

"The IFSB has been closely monitoring such global developments in fintech" he said, noting that "a fundamental question for standard-setters and regulators is how fintech should be addressed from a regulatory and financial stability perspective, which doesn't hinder the growth of this sector."

With the range of new services that are emerging, Zahid feels that capacity building is the biggest challenge to accelerating development. "There is a shortage of staff with the appropriate level of expertise and knowledge in regulations and product development in Islamic finance," he said. "There is a need for developing human resources and appropriate expertise within central banks, Shariah boards, as well as in commercial financial institutions," he emphasized.

Cross-border transactions have increased on the back of a global expansion of Islamic finance driven by soaring crude oil prices since around 2000. Zahid explained that this has helped oil wealth from the Gulf Cooperation Council -- a group of six oil-producing countries including Saudi Arabia -- and elsewhere in the Middle East to flow into Asia.

"Investors from the GCC and others, including North Africa, have been active buyers of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, issued in Asia," he said. "In 2015, for example, 42% of investors in Hong Kong's sovereign sukuk issuance, were from the GCC. Similarly for a recent Indonesian sovereign sukuk issuance, GCC investors comprised 41%."

Zahid stressed that the IFSB's mandate was to ensure the stability of the Islamic financial services industry, "through the issuance of standards, technical notes and guidance notes. The IFSB has already issued 29 standards, technical notes and guidance notes," he said. "We also conduct training workshops in the form of facilitating the implementation of IFSB standards workshops as well as providing technical assistance and policy advice to member jurisdictions. The IFSB normally plans and organizes nine to 10 workshops every year in various member jurisdictions," he continued.

THE 2017 BROOKINGS
FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL
INCLUSION PROJECT
REPORT
Building a secure and inclusive
global financial ecosystem
BY ROBIN J. LEWIS,
JOHN D. VILLASENOR, AND
DARRELL M. WEST



The new annual FDIP report, published in August
2017, highlights selected financial inclusion-related
updates for each of the 26 countries featured in last year’s
report and identifies possible next steps for advancing
financial inclusion. It identifies three key overall findings,
based upon trends observed across the international
financial inclusion landscape throughout the course of the
FDIP lifecycle: 1) There has been growth in national-level
recognition among the FDIP countries that financial
inclusion is a key ingredient for sustainable development;
2) “Fintech,” the intersection of technological innovation
and the financial sector, possesses tremendous potential
to accelerate progress toward financial inclusion; and
3) Countries must amplify investments in cybersecurity
efforts and knowledge-sharing in order to fully reap the
benefits of financial services innovation.

Pakistan Update:

Formal commitment milestone
• Committed to the Maya Declaration in 20111
Selected financial inclusion highlights
• Introduced “Level 0” risk-proportionate accounts in 2011 to facilitate access to formal financial
services among underserved populations2
• Launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in May 20153
• Joined the Better Than Cash Alliance in September 20154
Recent updates
• An April 2017 article noted that the government of Pakistan had recently announced the launch of
the Pakistan Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure Project, with funding of USD 130 million provided
by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development
Association. Three organizations in Pakistan will implement the project: the Pakistan Microfinance
Investment Company, National Savings, and the State Bank of Pakistan’s development finance group.
The project aims to advance financial inclusion by promoting access to digital payments among
businesses and households, as well as advancing access to credit for micro- and small and mediumsized
enterprises. 5
• In February 2017, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar emphasized that the government aimed to facilitate
broadband capability to all uncovered areas by the following fiscal year in order to support the
government’s financial and digital inclusion goals.6
• During the Digital Banking and Mobile Payments Summit held in February 2017, a representative of
the State Bank of Pakistan stated that the Bank is working to introduce a category of “digital bank”
that will incorporate new and emerging technologies through a financial services entity.7
• During a World Economic Forum meeting held in January 2017, Mastercard announced it was
collaborating with Pakistan’s NADRA Technologies to help “optimize national ID cards with electronic
payments functionality.” This effort will allow citizens to “carry out financial transactions and receive
government disbursements by utilizing the unique 13-digit identification number of their identity
card,” as well as use their ID to send and receive remittances.


In October 2016, the Pakistan Post and Karandaaz Pakistan signed a partnership agreement to digitize
money order services at Pakistan Post. According to the terms of the agreement, Karandaaz Pakistan
will provide technical support in developing a new product called the “mobile money order,” which
will be made available through Pakistan Post.9
Next steps
• Promote registration of mobile wallet accounts to deepen usage of diverse financial services
• Advance implementation of the Pakistan Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure Project
• Enhance broadband infrastructure to support digital and financial inclusion

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/fdip_20170831_... 

State Bank of #Pakistan: #Pakistanis fast adopting #digital financial transactions - The Express Tribune #fintech

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1550223/2-pakistanis-fast-adopting-dig...

Pakistan is fast moving towards adopting digital modes of payment with the number of electronic transactions registering a 17% year-on-year growth in 2016-17, stated the central bank in its annual performance review.

With the advent of mobile broadband technology, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in digital adoption with a number of ecommerce businesses as well as online methods of conducting payments deriving immense benefit.

Internet and mobile banking emerged on the horizon while ATM machines remained king of the ring in an otherwise, cash-based society.

“Following the global trends, the payment systems landscape in Pakistan has also transformed rapidly during last 6-7 years with stellar growth in payment cards, mobile, internet banking transactions,” the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in the annual performance review.
Banks, businesses and consumers in the country made a total of 625.8 million transactions via electronic banking channels worth Rs37.1 trillion in fiscal year 2017.

This number is 17% higher than 543.8 million transactions conducted in the prior year. However, the value of transaction remained flat.

Commercial banks, via their real-time online branches (RTOB), deposited and withdrew cash and transferred funds through intra-bank facility worth Rs31.1 trillion during the year via 143.6 million transactions during the year.

“Rs31.1 trillion…was 23% of total e-banking transactions by volume and 84% by value,” the central bank said.

Internet banking increased 32% to 25.2 million transactions worth around Rs969 billion in fiscal year 2017. Mobile phone banking surged 12% to 7.4 million transaction valuing Rs141 billion in the year.

“The initiation of projects like the development of National Payment Gateway, online collection of taxes and duties and elimination of cheques from government payments will have far reaching implications on banking system efficiency, effectiveness and access,” SPB said.

Some 25 banks offered internet and call centers/IVR (interactive voice response) banking services, while 18 banks dealt in mobile phone banking as on June 2017.

On the contrary, paper-based (cheques, pay orders, demand drafts and others) transactions were recorded at 451.8 million valued at Rs139.6 trillion in the year.

King of the ring

“ATMs are the most frequently used channel for withdrawal of cash,” the SBP said in the report.

A total of 397.7 million transactions were processed on ATMs valued at around Rs4.6 trillion.

“During Ramazan and the ensuing Eidul Fitr holidays in 2017, a total of Rs442 billion were withdrawn through ATMs,” it said.

A total of 32 banks operate 12,689 ATMs across the country as on June 30, 2017. This was a growth of 11.5% in one year.

----

E-Commerce (online shopping) in Pakistan also started picking up with 571 merchants offering their products online. During FY17, 1.2 million transactions valued at Rs9.4 billion were processed through e-commerce.

PSO set to offer branchless banking services

Point of sale

In order to encourage the use of point of sale (POS) machines, banks and third party providers are being encouraged to incentivise merchants, by offering them associated value added services.

In addition, more convenient payment methods like QR codes and mobile apps are also being introduced in the market by payment schemes and new fintechs; however, their uptake is still in infancy and limited to upscale outlets.

However, the total number of POS machines grew by 7.3% to 54,490 during the year whereas the value of total transactions processed through the machines grew by 23% to Rs246 billion, the central bank said.

The number of payment/plastic cards increased 8.8% to 36.6 million as on June 30, 2017. These cards include over 17.9 million debit cards, over 8 million ATM-only cards and around 1.3 million credit cards.

Bank of #China (BoC) is 2nd Chinese bank to open in #Pakistan after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/bank-of-china-bec...

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has already opened two of its branches in Karachi and Islamabad and is providing various services, including corporate finance, investment banking, foreign deposits, project loans, and working capital loans.

The Bank of China (BoC) became operational in Pakistan as it inaugurated its first branch in Karachi on Tuesday.

Emphasising that it was "a great honour" for the bank to be launched in Pakistan, BoC Chairman Chen Siqing noted that the Karachi branch was its first in South Asia.


The Dawn quoted him as saying that the bank would strengthen the "brotherly relations" between the two countries in the financial sector.

Siqing also highlighted that the bank could help Pakistan effectively reap the benefits of Beijing's economic prosperity.

Welcoming the bank to Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa, said that the increased diversity of foreign banks would increase the country's economic resilience.

He also expressed hope that Pakistan would learn from BoC's expertise in the small and medium enterprises sector.

Speaking during the launch, Acting Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Zhao Lijian said that the opening of the bank "marked the confidence of the Chinese corporate sector in Pakistan's economic situation."

President Mamnoon Hussain, who was also present on the occasion, expressed confidence that the newly-launched bank will help accelerate infrastructure development and overall economic growth of the country.

He termed the BoC's arrival to Pakistan a "memorable event in the everlasting friendship between Pakistan and China".

President Hussain assured the BoC of the continued support of the government and State Bank of Pakistan in expanding its operations in the country.

The BOC was allowed to commence banking business in Pakistan on September 19 this year.

This is the second Chinese bank which has been allowed to operate in Pakistan. The State Bank of Pakistan had issued a license to BoC in May 2017.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has already opened two of its branches in Karachi and Islamabad and is providing various services, including corporate finance, investment banking, foreign deposits, project loans, and working capital loans.

#Pakistan to issue Islamic & conventional #bonds to borrow $2 billion to bolster reserves amid widening deficits

http://www.gulf-times.com/story/570314/Pakistan-said-to-appoint-ban...

Pakistan has picked arrangers for a potential $2bn debt sale planned for later this year, according to two people familiar with the deal, in a bid to bolster falling reserves as the economy faces increased signs of stress ahead of elections next year.
South Asia’s second-largest economy is planning to offer Shariah-complaint and conventional bonds depending on market conditions, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
The sale would come as Pakistan’s finances are starting to show strain. The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves have fallen 15% to $19.8bn this year as its traditional exports, such as textiles, dwindle and imports rise. The World Bank estimates that $17bn of external financing is needed in the next financial year for Pakistan to bridge its rising debt payments and current account deficit, the lender said last month.
Pakistan is planning to raise $1bn from a sukuk offering, and has mandated Citigroup, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Noor Bank to manage the sale and has picked Citigroup, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China for a potential conventional bond offering of an equal amount, the people said.
The country’s finance secretary, Shahid Mahmood, said in August that an assessment was being made to issue either sukuk or bond of about $1bn by the second quarter of this fiscal year starting in June. That comes as Pakistan’s current account deficit is expected to widen to 5.7% of gross domestic product, from a deficit of 4.4% in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Pakistan’s finance ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
National elections are expected to be held in the first week of August 2018, with the ruling party under pressure as its leader, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was barred from office by the Supreme Court in July following an investigation into his family’s finances. Sharif, along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, now face criminal charges and both deny any wrong-doing.

#Broadband users in #Pakistan cross 48.13 million • Dispatch News Desk #3g #4g #smartphones

https://dnd.com.pk/broadband-users-in-pakistan-cross-48-13-million/...

The total broadband subscribers including for 3G and 4G services have crossed around 48.13 million mark in the Country till September this year, registering a reasonable growth rate with each passing month.

As per latest figures issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the number of broadband users was around 46.9 million till August 2017 and major contribution in one month has been made in shape of 3G and 4G subscribers by Mobile Phone Operators which reached 46 million by August.

The tele-density of total broadband has reached 22.6 per cent while tele-density for mobile broadband touched 21.6 per cent mark till the period mentioned. Total mobile phone subscribers in the country have reached 141 million mark with tele-density of 70.25 till August 2017.

The number of broadband subscribers in other technologies included DSL 15,53,062, HFC 51,226, Wimax 1,55,747, FTTH 52,749, EvDO 5,68,368 and other 9,264 subscribers.

Experts of telecom industry are having a viewpoint that portable mobile broadband devices like MiFi and Wingles are one of the main reasons of this growth in 3G/4G subscribers and many more will follow this trend in upcoming days.

Meanwhile, the Country’s largest mobile phone operator, Mobilink has overtaken its competitors as 3G/4G player after official figures were released by PTA. Jazz subscribers base was 13.7 million 3G and 1.35 million 4G till the period mentioned.

A senior official of the Company said key to this leading position is consistent investment to further innovate on behalf of subscribers by delivering not just the best 3G/4G and voice network, but also improvements in customer service, and product lines.

11 Fintech Startups from Pakistan You Need to Know About in 2017


https://www.techflier.com/2017/08/04/11-fintech-startups-from-pakis...



According to the World Bank, half of Pakistan’s population do not have access to the most fundamental banking and financial services. The arrival of Pakistani fintech startups catering to average consumers has effectively bridged this gap, enabling local “unbankable” citizens to enjoy the conveniences of modern banking and finance—while allowing for more productive and efficient digital financial services.

AbacusConsulting 

AbacusConsulting was founded as a management consulting firm—but has evolved into one of Pakistan’s premier business solutions providers. The company specializes in developing finance-related business solutions for business and organizations large and small.

Finja

Finja was founded by tech and banking industry veterans in efforts to produce innovative financial services accessed via digital ecosystems. Its SimSim solution is Pakistan’s first payment solution for free and frictionless payments in real-time.

Inov8 

Inov8 is widely regarded as the fastest growing digital payments company in the region. The company collaborates with Easypaisa to connect its vast distribution network to all commercial banks that have adopted Inov8’s technology; additionally, it recently signed up Telenor Microfinance Bank’s mobile money platform to its platform.

KarloCompare

KarloCompare’s web and mobile app allows users to compare a large range of credit card, personal/auto loan, travel insurance, and broadband offers with a few clicks/swipes. The startup has been featured by Techinasia, E27, Yahoo! News, and Propakistani, among others.

OneLoad

OneLoad’s platform allows users to top up their mobile accounts easily through its streamlined mobile app and web portal. Retailers can top up mobile numbers from any mobile phone operator, allowing for a unified mobile billing experience for customers and a single universal mobile usage balance.

Red Buffer

Red Buffer specializes in developing data science services, cloud and mobile apps, and machine learning/natural language processing (ML/NLP) applications. The company focuses in particular on NLP for domains like legal, finance and e-commerce.

Stocksfm

Stocksfm has created the first transparent social investment network focused on emerging markets. The company created the $ticker tag to compile and organize streams of information around stocks and markets, across internet and social media websites. This innovative “stream” concept provides insights and ideas used by investors, media analysts, and others as they research and manage their financial investments.

Monet

Monet is a card and payment services provider aimed at digitizing payments in cash-based economies. The startup was the winner of the Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

TPS

TPS develops solutions for prepaid mobile card and card management channels, payment issuing, billing payment gateway integration, and more. The company is trusted by over 120 customers in over 30 countries across the globe.

Payload

Incubated at Plan9, Payload has developed an easy-to-use technology that allows businesses to accept bitcoin payments while only handling Pakistani Rupees. Check out our coverage of Payload in last year’s 15 Tech Startups in Pakistan You Need to Know About.

Fintech may have taken the world by storm, but in Pakistan, various roadblocks must be surpassed before digital solutions are accepted into the local banking and finance mainstream. Despite the challenges, these 11 innovators are leading the charge to bring fintech to Pakistan’s masses; be sure to keep them on your radar in 2017 and beyond.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
Alibaba in talks to buy big stake in Telenor Bank

By Salman Siddiqui Published: September 21, 2017

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1511954/alibaba-talks-buy-big-stake-te...

KARACHI: Consumers in Pakistan may be able to make online payments globally through Alibaba Group’s Alipay as the Chinese third-party mobile and online payment platform is in advanced talks with a local financing and technology company to finalise details of share purchase.

Alipay is in talks with Telenor Microfinance Bank Limited for acquiring a significant stake in the company, industry officials confirmed to The Express Tribune.

“We have received a due diligence request from Telenor Microfinance Bank,” acknowledged a State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) official.
It is mandatory for every bank in Pakistan to seek the central bank’s permission for due diligence for stake sale to a third party.

Even if the two parties agree to execute a sale and purchase agreement, the deal remains subject to approval of the central bank and other regulators.

Alipay is in talks with Telenor Microfinance Bank Limited for acquiring a significant stake in the company, industry officials confirmed to The Express Tribune.

“We have received a due diligence request from Telenor Microfinance Bank,” acknowledged a State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) official.
It is mandatory for every bank in Pakistan to seek the central bank’s permission for due diligence for stake sale to a third party.

Even if the two parties agree to execute a sale and purchase agreement, the deal remains subject to approval of the central bank and other regulators.
Alibaba testing Pakistan’s e-commerce market

“Alibaba’s team has been engaged (in discussions) with Telenor Bank for the past two months and they are at an advanced stage now,” an industry official revealed.

Telenor Group, which holds 100% stake in the fintech, wants to keep majority shares. However, “Alibaba may acquire up to 49% stake, if the business deal is done successfully,” said the official.

There is talk in the market that Alipay is acquiring a 40% stake in Telenor Bank at a price of $100 million. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif met with Alibaba Group founding chairman Jack Ma in Davos earlier this year where the latter expressed interest in investing in Pakistan’s e-commerce sector.

In April 2017, Sharif met Alibaba President Michael Evans and discussed opportunities for introduction of the global e-commerce giant in Pakistan. Later in mid-May, the former premier visited the Alibaba headquarters in China and signed a memorandum of understanding.

Responding to the request for comments on the status of advanced talks and due diligence, Telenor Group Communications Vice President Atle Lessum said in an email, “As a principle, Telenor never comments on rumours and speculations.”

None of the officials contacted neither contradicted nor confirmed the development.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, while presenting the budget for 2017-18 in the National Assembly in May, had announced that the government would establish an e-gateway for online global payments.

“In order to facilitate transactions through mobile banking and e-gateway systems, the government is establishing a state-of-the-art e-gateway at the SBP at a cost of Rs200 million,” Dar said.

He maintained that Pakistan’s e-commerce was growing at a rapid pace. It is worth $150 million (Rs15.75 billion) now and is anticipated to increase to $1 billion by 2020. “Daraz.com made sales close to $1 billion on Black Friday (in Pakistan),” he said.

The Telenor Group announced in March 2016 that it had increased its shareholding in Telenor Microfinance Bank Limited (formerly Tameer Microfinance Bank) to 100%.

The bank’s profit increased 5% to Rs895.35 million in 2016 from Rs851.74 million in the previous year, according to its annual report of 2016.

This is why you need to know about trade finance

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/trade-finance-what-to-know/


We are talking about a financing mechanism that is essential to bridge the time lag between a product’s shipment from one market and its arrival and inspection in another. Reducing this delay helps build trust and minimizes many of the risks arising from such complex transactions, such as a lack of timely payment, exchange rates and the deterioration or loss of goods and services.

Trade finance likes to manifest itself in the form of letters of credit, guarantees or insurance and is usually provided by intermediaries, such as banks or financial institutions. One of its most current forms involves bank-to-bank transactions, where one bank provides an account and related services to another in a relationship is called correspondent banking.

According to an Asian Development Bank Institute paper, adequate and reliable trade finance creates exports opportunities: “[I]t enables firms which would otherwise be considered too risky, to link into expanding global value chains and thus contribute to employment and productivity growth”. Trade is no longer just for the big boys.

-----------------

FinTech solutions could potentially solve some of the transparency and risk-related processes and transaction costs, as well as fees, associated with banks’ due diligence checks by providing trusted platforms to connect seekers and providers of funding, rather than piles of paperwork.

The good news is that some initiatives are emerging. For example, some FinTech firms in the US and Singapore are starting to offer web-based platforms allowing users to post assets for distribution, negotiate deals, and manage supporting documentation.

FinTech solutions could finally find their niche in the finance sector and kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, they could allow for the development of innovative start-ups that have been in the shadows for too long while creating new opportunities to link up with markets; on the other hand, they could offer an easier and cheaper way to access finance through a user-friendly platform that’s accessible by phone. Our Burmese entrepreneur would certainly find it easier to buy a phone than to open a bank account.

Now take off your rose-tinted glasses for a minute and feel that bittersweet taste in your mouth. Every joy has a dark side. Given the nascent nature of FinTech, regulatory frameworks are still uncertain and concerns related to intellectual property and data protection are yet to emerge. This may prevent some companies from adopting these solutions and being able to see the benefits, which include security, risk and cost reductions, and speed, to name but a few.

-------

It’s all about access

Trade finance 2.0?

#Pakistan on road towards #DigitalEconomy. #fintech #smartphones #3G #4G https://nation.com.pk/24-Jan-2018/pakistan-on-road-towards-digital-...

Talking specifically about Pakistan, according to World Bank, about 100 million adults in Pakistan don’t have access to formal and regulated financial services. This number is approximately 5% of the world’s entire “unbanked” population, which currently stands at 2 billion. Despite of this, there is one huge positive aspect that Pakistan leads in digital finance and branchless banking in South Asia as 6% of adults have mobile accounts compared to South Asia’s average of 2.6%. This shows that Pakistani consumers are ready to accept the new technology.

The acceptance of new technological platforms is evident from the fact that Pakistani banking industry that started back in 1947 touched figure of 40 million bank accounts in the year 2016 whereas it took branchless banking only five years to reach 17 million accounts. There is also a forecast that in few more years this figure would reach 20 to 30 million. This growth was possible due to the increase in the mobile phone subscribers in Pakistan.

With the introduction of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) launched in 2015, now almost all banks have introduced their official banking apps. These apps allow users to perform basic banking operations like checking balance, transfer of funds, payment of utility bills etc. All these transactions are done over a safe and secure network and secondly the issue of mobility (mentioned earlier) has also been solved as all transactions can be done with a touch of few buttons right from home.

Now banks and financial corporations should further try to promote and educate their account holders so that they can get maximum benefit from the facilities available through branchless and mobile banking. Moreover, products like Telenor Easypaisa, SimSim Mobile Wallet, and Jazz Cash are disrupting the normal day to day financial processes in the country serving almost every part of the society particularly the unbanked population.

Economy is the backbone of all kinds of development process thus the amalgamation of technology with finance is the step in the right direction. Now to further utilise this FinTech phenomenon, it is mandatory for the relevant authorities to promote the products among the masses.

Bahrain’s Ithmaar Bank plans aggressive expansion in Pakistan
Bahrain-based lender to add more than 100 branches in Pakistan this year through its subsidiary Faysal Bank


http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/banking/bahrain-s-ithmaar-bank...


Dubai: Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank plans to add more than 100 branches in Pakistan this year through its subsidiary Faysal Bank, to capitalise on the country’s low penetration rate of banking services, a senior executive said.
Ithmaar Bank owns 66 per cent of Faysal Bank, whose contribution to the Islamic retail bank’s overall balance sheet would likely grow to more than half as a result of the expansion, Ithmaar Deputy Chief Executive Abdul Hakeem Al Mutawa said on Monday.

“We are planning to be over 500 branches this coming year and are aggressive in this,” Al Mutawa said in an interview.
“Banking penetration is around less than 20 per cent in Pakistan, so there are good opportunities to grow.” Faysal Bank, which is listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, focuses on corporate, commercial, retail and consumer banking activities.
Al Mutawa was speaking after Ithmaar Bank’s parent company, Ithmaar Holding, listed on the Dubai Financial Market on Monday.


The company is already listed in Bahrain and Kuwait.
“The listing is good news for the company for growth capital and we are well established now to approach the capital markets,” Al Mutawa said, adding that the bank had no imminent plans to raise funds through a bond or loan.
In Bahrain, Al Mutawa said there were opportunities to grow the business from working with the government on providing financing for social housing. The bank currently has 16 branches in the kingdom.
Bahrain’s Ithmaar Holding is exploring the sale of its 25.4 per cent stake in Bahrain’s BBK BSC, which has operations in Bahrain and Kuwait, India and Dubai, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in August.
Al Mutawa declined to comment on the time frame for the disposal of the BBK stake or identify the name of the company advising IB Capital, Ithmaar Holding’s investment subsidiary managing the asset.
“The performance of BBK is very good and still part of the portfolio of IB Capital, and if there are opportunities to maximise shareholder value I’m sure the board will take those,” he said.

McKinsey & Co: #Fintech will add about 4 million #jobs, 93 million #bank accounts, $36 billion annually to #GDP, and $7 billion to #Pakistan government’s net revenue by 2025.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1615482/2-three-players-enter-pakistan...

At least three fintechs are set to capitalise on the rapidly growing financial sector of Pakistan, targeting an entry in the country’s market, according to the central bank.

FonePay, Monet and TPL Rupya are entering Pakistan’s financial market, said a quarterly report of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), hinting at a rise in the business-to-consumer e-Commerce (e-B2C). Growing incomes, coupled with advancement in communication technology and expansion of internet access and branchless banking, has been propelling the sector forward, said the SBP report.

The new financial technology will enable people to make online transactions to anyone available on any mobile wallet account, which is not yet possible.

Fintech will add about 4 million jobs, 93 million bank accounts, $36 billion annually to the gross national product (GNP), and $7 billion to Pakistan government’s net revenue by 2025, according to McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm.

“Bank accounts seem to be on track as there are 7 million today. This includes 1.8 million traditional accounts, accumulated over 50 years, and 5.2 million mobile/branchless accounts accumulated in around one-tenth of that time,” said National Technology Fund Ignite CEO Yusuf Hussain.

This is because globally, traditional bank accounts rise proportionately to GNP, but mobile accounts can rise exponentially. The central bank’s target of 50 million accounts by 2020 should be on track, as the McKinsey forecast, he remarked. Transactions worth Rs20.7 billion were carried out by consumers on international e-commerce websites, said the SBP. 

DIGITAL FINANCE FOR ALL:
POWERING INCLUSIVE GROWTH
IN EMERGING ECONOMIES

McKinsey & Co 2016


For our GDP calculations, we used McKinsey’s proprietary general equilibrium
macroeconomic model, and we tested the robustness of these results with a partial
equilibrium Solow growth model. We also used our Solow model to understand specific
individual effects of different components of the model. Field research in seven large
countries covering a range of income levels and geographies—Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India,
Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan—informed our quantitative analysis and provided rich insights
into the conditions that must be in place to capture the value from digital finance. In addition,
we conducted more than 150 interviews around the world with a variety of experts and
stakeholders to obtain a more detailed view of the different elements we fed into our model. 

----------------

The growth potential for Pakistan sits in the middle of the range at 7 percent, somewhat
below its lower-income peers, reflecting its unique circumstances. Financial inclusion in
Pakistan is extremely low—only 13 percent of adult population has a financial or mobilemoney
account today. Pakistan’s total loans outstanding to all borrowers—household,
corporate, and government—amount to only 17 percent of GDP, compared with the average
of 112 percent of GDP in emerging economies.70 This extremely underdeveloped starting
position provides significant upside potential to expand its pool of formal savings and credit,
however also incurs costs above that of lower-income peers. 


https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Global%20Themes/Employmen...

Fintech’s silent revolution
Sarwat AhsonDecember 18, 2017

https://www.dawn.com/news/1377207

Enticed by disruptive and yet innovative technology, the financial system is reorganising itself to regain its robust health, reduce costs and make its services more efficient and affordable after the 2008 crisis. Fintech is ushering in a silent revolution.

Its outreach is expanding and it now embraces activities that can be broadly categorised into: Lending tech, Payments tech (billing/remittance), Crypto currencies (bitcoin), Wealth Management (Robo advisors), Crowd funding, Insurance and Regtech (regulations).

Pakistan’s financial sector has responded to the challenges of applying these new technologies by strengthening its human resource and developing customer interface platforms. Most banks now have Chief Innovation Officers or Digital Initiative departments.

Various online Payment Systems and Mobile Apps have been developed to encourage footfall in branches.

The demand for a swift payment mechanism is evident from the quick adaption of digitisation efforts and rising e-commerce platforms. The latest State Bank’s Annual Performance Review states that “e-Commerce is picking up with 571 merchants offering their products online. During FY2017, 1.2 million transactions valued at Rs9.4 billion were processed through e-commerce”.

The SBP report further states that “25 financial Institutions provide internet banking and 18 have mobile apps. During FY17, 25.2m internet banking transactions were processed valuing at Rs969bn. Mobile banking accounted for 7.4m transactions valuing Rs141bn, representing an annual volume growth of 32 per cent and 12pc respectively”.

Pakistan’s financial sector has responded to challenges by strengthening its human resource and developing customer interface platforms

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
By mid-2018: With Fintech, Pakistan set to dismantle barriers to branchless banking

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1602502/2-mid-2018-fintech-pakistan-se...

Fintech is all set to revolutionise Pakistan’s financial sector in upcoming months as the telecom regulator is taking steps to facilitate online transactions across all mobile phone networks just like making a phone call from one network to another.

Fintech (financial technology) is an electronic platform that will enable users to make financial transactions from one platform to any account-holders on other mobile phone networks all over the country.

So far, such online transactions were not possible because of the absence of inter-operability across the telecom network.

At present, Telenor’s Easypaisa, Jazz’s Mobicash and United Bank Limited’s Omni are providing mobile-based branchless banking services. However, their customers cannot transfer money from one service to another.

In an effort to promote fintech, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) – the telecom regulator – has decided to award Third Party Service Providers’ licences by June or July 2018, which will pave way for inter-operability between cellular mobile operators and ramp up financial inclusion all over the country.

“We have received two applications and the Third Party Service Providers’ system is expected to be launched in mid-2018,” said the PTA spokesperson in an email response to The Express Tribune.

This innovative system will also provide access to banking services for people having simple feature phones who will be able to make online financial transactions.

The new platform will help dismantle existing barriers that prevent digital wallets (branchless bank account-holders) from sending money to different bank accounts. Users will be able to make transactions from wallet to wallet or wallet to the bank account.

This will significantly reduce hard cash transactions and stave off the threat of cash theft. The State Bank’s vision of financial inclusion will also get a boost as it aims to provide 50% of the adult population access to the legal financial system by 2020.

Adnan Khan, a retailer in Sultanabad, a low-income locality of Karachi, told The Express Tribune that he expected his business to jump 100% after the launch of fintech platform. At present, he sends back many of his clients just because all mobile banking services are not available at his outlet.

PTA insists that it is an open licensing regime and it can issue more licences as per market needs and absorption.

Licence fee for the Third Party Service Provider is Rs1 million and Rs10-million performance bond is mandatory which is associated with roll-out obligations. Other regulatory obligations like annual licence fee, which is 0.5% of gross revenue of the licensee, are applicable as per licensing conditions.

The number of mobile phone banking transactions, which stood at 1.2 million in the first quarter of 2017, increased 12% to 1.3 million in the second quarter. In terms of value, the transactions surged 24% from Rs21 billion in the first quarter to Rs26 billion in the second quarter.

With the Third Party Service Providers’ platform, more digital financial services will be available in the Pakistani market.

“The third-party framework will also be critical for the launch of Asaan Mobile Account under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy,” said the PTA spokesperson.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > PAKISTAN > PUNJAB
ITU, BMGF ink financial inclusion research projects

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1623181/1-itu-bmgf-ink-financial-inclu...

The Information Technology University (ITU) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), represented by Karandaaz Pakistan, signed an agreement for three research projects on financial inclusion. In this regard, an agreement signing ceremony was held in Lahore on Wednesday.

While speaking on the occasion, ITU Vice-Chancellor Dr Umar Saif said Pakistan’s first FinTech Centre, established at ITU, will ensure financial inclusion and make a large portion of the population a part of the economy through technology. The project will be in collaboration with BMGF.

“Pakistan is a growing economy and the gender-based financial inclusion will become part of the documented economy.”

He maintained that joining hands with international development partners like BMGF for innovation and research in financial technology was a welcome step. “We welcome partnerships with local and international entities for financial inclusion through innovative applications of technology to help Pakistan reform digital financial services, especially with the inclusion of women,” he pointed out.

Similarly, Karandaaz CEO Ali Sarfraz Hussain said, “Together with BMGF and UK’s Department of Development, we are working with various departments for financial inclusion, including National Savings, State Bank of Pakistan and Agriculture Department of Punjab with a special grant from FinTech Centre.”

BMGF Deputy Director Financial Services Jason Lamb said that the Gates Foundation focused on Pakistan among the five largest countries, including Indonesia and Algeria, India etc. “Digital technology is playing a key role in fundamental changes in services with credit availability,” he added.

Jason said that more knowledge and research would trigger greater financial inclusion of women through technology in Pakistan. “It is heartening to see academicians stepping up to work closely with the industry in solving issues. Karandaaz and ITU have partnered to make this possible,” he said.

He said that ITU’s FinTech would devise many innovations and some research projects, while three specific academic researches would improve existing knowledge on women’s use of digital financial services and the barriers they face.

He maintained the researches will help in understanding and proposing solutions to mitigate these barriers. “One of the researches will focus on viability of a mobile app to form a rotating savings and credit association of women that will help them save and borrow collectively,” Lamb said.

He said another research will help in designing a digital financial system for business and personal use of micro entrepreneur women, while the third research will focus on digital solutions to safeguard women against SMS fraud in Pakistan.

Pakistan on road towards digital economy
To further utilise this FinTech phenomenon, it is mandatory for the relevant authorities to promote the products among the masses

https://nation.com.pk/24-Jan-2018/pakistan-on-road-towards-digital-...


It was not that long ago, Pakistani bank account holders had to wait in the long ques for their basic banking transactions. Gladly, with the introduction of ATMs about two decades ago, many banking procedures can now be done without even visiting the bank branches. Despite of this, still there is an issue of “mobility” as account holders have to personally visit ATM’s for their banking transactions.

This issue of mobility opened up new avenue and now there is rapid increase in information sharing between financial institutions and technological firms. This merger of Finance and Technology is popularly known as “FinTech”.

Today, FinTech has become a global phenomenon that has made the banking and day to day financial services more accessible to a common man particularly through smartphones. According to the forecasts of International Data Corporation (IDC), 70% of smartphones were destined to be shipped to emerging markets while only 30% to the developed world. This 70% of smartphones are now widely being used as mobile bank accounts and mobile wallets.

Talking specifically about Pakistan, according to World Bank, about 100 million adults in Pakistan don’t have access to formal and regulated financial services. This number is approximately 5% of the world’s entire “unbanked” population, which currently stands at 2 billion. Despite of this, there is one huge positive aspect that Pakistan leads in digital finance and branchless banking in South Asia as 6% of adults have mobile accounts compared to South Asia’s average of 2.6%. This shows that Pakistani consumers are ready to accept the new technology.

The acceptance of new technological platforms is evident from the fact that Pakistani banking industry that started back in 1947 touched figure of 40 million bank accounts in the year 2016 whereas it took branchless banking only five years to reach 17 million accounts. There is also a forecast that in few more years this figure would reach 20 to 30 million. This growth was possible due to the increase in the mobile phone subscribers in Pakistan.

With the introduction of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) launched in 2015, now almost all banks have introduced their official banking apps. These apps allow users to perform basic banking operations like checking balance, transfer of funds, payment of utility bills etc. All these transactions are done over a safe and secure network and secondly the issue of mobility (mentioned earlier) has also been solved as all transactions can be done with a touch of few buttons right from home.

Now banks and financial corporations should further try to promote and educate their account holders so that they can get maximum benefit from the facilities available through branchless and mobile banking. Moreover, products like Telenor Easypaisa, SimSim Mobile Wallet, and Jazz Cash are disrupting the normal day to day financial processes in the country serving almost every part of the society particularly the unbanked population.

Economy is the backbone of all kinds of development process thus the amalgamation of technology with finance is the step in the right direction. Now to further utilise this FinTech phenomenon, it is mandatory for the relevant authorities to promote the products among the masses.

#China’s #Alibaba's subsidiary Ant Financial makes foray into #Pakistan through Telenor deal. #payments #fintech #CPEC

https://www.ft.com/content/e0ead4c2-26c8-11e8-b27e-cc62a39d57a0

Telenor Group, the Norwegian telecom giant and Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, on Tuesday announced a ‘strategic partnership’ that will see Ant invest $184.5m in Pakistan’s Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB), a subsidiary of Telenor.

The investment, which is the first by Ant in the south Asian country, will oversee investments in further developing TMB’s mobile payment and digital financial services.

“There are 100m Pakistanis (roughly half the population) who don’t have a bank account,” Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group, told the Financial Times, highlighting the scope for expansion of banking services. “The services they will receive will range from payments of bills, drawing salaries, drawing pensions and access to micro finance”.

Mr Brekke said progress by Pakistan in creating a national ID cards system run by the government’s national database registration authority has helped to improve documentation for financial transactions.

“This [customers’ details] have to match with their IDs [national ID cards],” he said. “Its a way [of documentation of money transfers] to deal with issues like money laundering.”

A central bank official in Karachi, the southern port city said products like the ones offered by TMB have helped to improve security of transactions, especially in congested urban neighbourhoods where thefts at gun point were common in the past.

“Rather than carry currency notes all around, its safer to go to a franchise and just send or receive money,” said the official. “This is the kind of service also helps people avoid going out in the rush hour.”

The announcement comes as Telenor Pakistan gets ready to celebrate its 13 years of existence in the country next week. During this time, the company has invested approximately U$3.5bn in Pakistan’s telecom sector where the demand for voice communication has quickly added to a rapidly growing number of data customers.

Mr Brekke said the company expects a strong growth in demand from customers who seek to use mobile services for financial transactions.

#Pakistani-#American founder Amir Wain of #SiliconValley #fintech #payments firm i2c expands operations to #Omaha #Nebraska

http://www.omaha.com/money/payments-company-to-bring-jobs-to-omaha-...

A California payments company plans to open its second North American operations center in Omaha by this summer and employ about 300 people within a year, with hiring to start next week.

The company, i2c Inc. of Redwood City, California, helps financial institutions, corporations and government agencies with credit, debit, prepaid and other payments through a cloud-based computer system called Agile Processing.

The company said Tuesday its Omaha investment would total $30 million over four years.

Much of the work will be “client facing,” servicing i2c’s clients, said Peg Johnson, a former First Data Resources executive who joined i2c a year ago and will head up the Omaha operation as executive vice president.

Johnson, a native Omahan, worked 20 years at First Data, most recently as a senior vice president running client services for one of its business lines.

“We absolutely knew that we wanted to bring these types of jobs to somewhere in the Midwest,” she said. “It’s all about the work ethic, the people’s loyalty to their employer.”

Omaha was chosen because of the city’s talent pool in the financial technology, or fintech, industry, she said.

“Omaha could not have been a better choice,” she said. “We have highly qualified, fintech-savvy personnel here.”

Omaha’s payment-related businesses include Omaha-born First Data, PayPal, Convergys and CSG Systems, all competing for many of the same people.

“I’m not worried at all,” Johnson said. “We’re going to be an employer of choice, obviously pay well. We’ll have a premier location and a premier facility.”

The company hasn’t signed a lease yet but has chosen an existing building close to bus lines and with easy access, Johnson said. She declined to reveal its location before signing a lease.

The Omaha center will expand i2c’s account management, operations and client services divisions and have a computer network operations center, similar to a center i2c opened in Montreal in 2016.

In a press release, Amir Wain, i2c’s founder and chief executive, said the Omaha center will support the privately owned company’s growth.

“Our customers’ success is our No. 1 priority, and this expansion underscores our commitment as we continue on our path to $1 billion in revenue,” he said.

#Cubix bags the first prize in the #Fintech Hackathon 2018 in #Karachi #Pakistan #Momentum

http://chicagoeveningpost.com/2018/03/08/cubix-bags-the-first-prize...

Thursday 8th March 2018 – Cubix ‘Kifayat’ – a solution to manage ballot committees digitally and way more conveniently – sounded spectacular to the jury.

After a long and intense period of 2 days of Hackathon, the jury – comprised of top management from Bank Alfalah, TPS and Covalent including banking executives and Fintech experts – selected CubixKifayat as the winner of Fintech Hackathon in Karachi, Pakistan. The theme of this hi-tech event was revolving around “Building interesting financial products atop the APIs provided by the Partners of the program” which may help in creating new customer experiences and revenue models by leveraging Pakistan’s digital payment ecosystem.

The Hackathon started right after the 10th Anniversary Celebrations at Cubix where the stage was set for the employees, partners and affiliates with their entire family. Many of the employees even from technical division were wrapping up the projects on tough deadline to share their milestone achievements in the event. Technical team hardly got time to breath in, entering the competition, yet Cubix with its legacy chose not to miss the opportunity and went ahead to showcase the talent. And it was an immense pleasure for the CTO of the company, Mr. Ali Sohani, to see that hard work did pay off beautifully when they not just managed to secure the position but, coming out as winners amongst all the city-wide competitors.

The Hackathon took place in Karachi at the Momentum 2018 and it was a treat to watch startups thriving to their maximum potential for funding and investments.

The participating teams were given access to multiple API’s of reputed organizations such as Bank Alfalah, TPS Worldwide and Access Group. They were tasked to innovate an idea that can solve a financial problem faced by majority of people and at the same time, proves to be beneficial for the banking industry.

Cubix Commerce responded with the CubixKifayat App, which simplifies the whole tedious procedure of managing a Ballot Committee. The app aims to manage ballot committee online while taking care of details like funds transfer and trust process involved in secure and distributed manner respectively. The app operates with connecting all of its users with a bank accounts or virtual online wallets that can be charged with EasyPaisa and JazzCash. Transfer of funds can be done via various digital payment mediums and all of the transactions will be transparent and secured. CubixKifayat aims to leverage banks and its users on a broader scale and with majority of Pakistanis using the old conventional method of managing ballot committee, this app can revolutionize the method of managing ballot committees forever.

“Earlier this year I came across an article that showcased, in Pakistan, Ballot Committees are 3rd most used channel to save money and for p2p-funding. This is where the idea of Cubix Kifayat emerged from. CubixKifayat is a solution for nearly every household in the country that yet doesn’t believe in big banks or centralized systems for the saving and lending of money.”Said CTO, Mr.Ali Sohani.

As a winner of the first ever Fintech Hackathon, Cubix Commerce has a long way to go and here is a proof of it. Bank Alfalah gave their APIs to team Cubixfor their future projects and self-learning.

Pakistan's Community Savings

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2013-01-17/pakistans-co...

Alipay in Pakistan?

https://www.brecorder.com/2018/03/15/405127/alipay-in-pakistan/

Does Pakistan’s digital payments’ landscape finally have the breakthrough it was looking for? China’s Alipay, which has over 800 million users across multiple markets, is about to enter Pakistan. E-commerce watchers would now wish that Alipay’s founder, the Alibaba – which spun off Alipay from its e-commerce setup some years ago but still owns Alipay’s underlying technology – also follows suit soon.

Ant Financial Services, the group that owns Alipay, has made a deal to buy 45 percent of Telenor Group’s stake in the Telenor Microfinance Bank, formerly Tameer Bank, at a value of $184.5 million. This is confirmed by Telenor Group’s public statement on this subject. After building critical mass of Easypaisa users, Telenor Pakistan will do well to further scale the business with a formidable strategic partner.

Mind you, Ant is the world’s largest Fintech co. It has been focused in the past couple of years on growing its scale overseas. Though its acquisition bid for US money-transfer giant MoneyGram failed earlier this year, Ant has struck local partnerships with digital and financial players in strategic markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.

The Telenor-Ant deal, if it goes through the local regulatory checks, is significant for Pakistan, on multiple counts.

One, the deal would bring the local Fintech market into spotlight. The market potential of some 100 million unbanked individuals is a mouth-watering prospect for Fintech players. Alipay, with its robust technology payment platform, stands a better chance to build scale, which is essential to provide low-cost digital payment services in a low-income market.

Two, it may help the online economy’s ecosystem to grow further. The online economy – which includes e-commerce as well as the gig economy – needs acceptance of digital payment solutions at the grassroots level to be able to realize its billion-dollar potential in the near term. While the cash-on-delivery payment settlement is good to build user trust early on, in the long run, digital wallets will be more efficient.

Three, Alipay’s entry in the market might force the big banks as well as branchless banking (BB) providers to wake up and smell the coffee. Local banks seem content raising CASA deposits from a small user base – now they risk losing a big chunk of the potential market to digital. As for the BB operators, they are still stuck at a collective 15-16 million active accounts, drastically lower than the potential. It is time to make serious investments in Fintech and improve the service offering

And four, Alipay’s experience in Pakistan may provide impetus to some major e-commerce FDI coming into Pakistan later. While Alipay could help revolutionize the financial side of e-commerce here, local players like Daraz, TCS and others are slowly becoming efficient at merchandising and marketing. Should Alipay find traction in Pakistan, it may convince Alibaba to make its move and find a local partner, or target.

How Digital Payments Revolutionized Poor Women’s Lives in Pakistan
Pakistan’s women-focused social benefits payment system shows how the use of digital technologies not only increases financial access for women, but also gives them a voice at home and in the political landscape, writes researcher Atika Kemal.

https://www.newsdeeply.com/womensadvancement/community/2018/01/26/h...

Farzana*, 45, stands with her nine-year-old daughter in the scorching heat of the southern Pakistan town of Larkana. She is waiting in a long queue to hand her mobile phone and computerized national identity card to a banking agent. Farzana visits the agent every few months to collect her quarterly welfare payment of 4,500 Pakistani Rupees ($40).

Farzana doesn’t know how to retrieve the personal identification number sent by text message to her mobile phone to notify her of payment into her account, so she hands the phone over to the agent. The agent sees the PIN and uploads it into the system to verify her personal details. He then hands Farzana her grant, asks her for a thumbprint and gives her a record of the payment.

Charagh*, 78, is a widow suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease. She travels by bus with her 20-year-old son to the nearest ATM – located on the fringes of her remote village in Bahawalpur, Southern Punjab. The journey takes three hours there and back.

Once she’s there, Charagh unwraps an embroidered handkerchief and gives the debit card inside it to her son. She wears her identity card – her most precious asset – as a necklace. Her son, who has only attended primary school, gets the money from the ATM and gives it to his frail mother.

These are the stories of some of the 16 women I met during my research on Pakistan’s Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) – the largest government-run social cash program run exclusively for women in southern Asia.

Every quarter, 5.4 million women from low-income households in Pakistan receive welfare payments using digital means. The use of digital tools, such as the Benazir Debit Card – which is embedded with a chip carrying the user’s information – and phone texts, is intended to make the system of receiving payments more convenient and safer for women to use.

My research shows it also has the unexpected effect of raising the status of women by granting them more decision-making powers, both within their households and in the political sphere.

When BISP was launched in 2008, welfare payments were disbursed in cash or money orders via local parliamentarians and postmen. In 2010, to improve transparency, visibility, security and efficiency in the delivery of social cash, the program shifted to electronic payments made directly into beneficiaries’ bank accounts.

Pakistan accounts for more than 100 million of the world’s 2.5 billion unbanked people. From a population of more than 190 million, only 13 percent of adults have a formal bank account, as reported by the 2014 Global Findex. Even more alarming, fewer than 5 percent of women in Pakistan are included in the formal financial sector, compared with south Asia’s average of 37 percent.

Digitizing BISP payments has had the benefit of ensuring that low-income women have access to bank accounts. For most of the women registered on the program, being enrolled was the first time they had ever had one.


To date, 94 percent of beneficiaries of BISP receive electronic payments. They provide flexibility and convenience to women, letting them cash their payments at various locations – banking agents, ATMs and point-of-sale machines ­– using a secure PIN. This eliminates the practice of some politicians or postmen demanding bribes for delivering cash payments to people’s homes.

SBP to increase financial inclusion of SMEs to 17pc

https://pakobserver.net/sbp-to-increase-financial-inclusion-of-smes...


Assistant Chief Manager, SBP’s Banking Services Corporation, Ms. Rabia Yaqoob Khan gave a detailed presentation to the business community on financing schemes of SBP for SMEs.
Rabia Yaqoob Khan said that only six percent SMEs were currently availing loans from banks despite the fact that 40 percent of them have relationship with banks. She said that SBP has set target of increasing financial inclusion of SMEs from current 6 to 8 percent to 17 percent by 2020 so that these businesses could achieve better growth and development.
Assistant Chief Manager, SBP’s Banking Services Corporation said that SBP has launched 9 financing schemes for SMEs at 6 percent markup to facilitate them expansion and growth. She said that for this purpose, regulatory framework and taxation system would be simplified for SMEs.
She said that the incumbent government was taking keen interest in promoting SMEs and hoped that maximum SMEs should avail these schemes for fast growth and development.
In his welcome address, Senior Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Naveed Malik said that SMEs were the backbone of our economy as they constituted over 90 percent of total business enterprises in Pakistan. He said SMEs contributed 30 percent to GDP, 25 percent to exports and 78 percent to industrial employment that showed their important role in the economic development of the country.
The SVP ICCI said the tough collateral conditions of banks were the major hurdle for SMEs growth and urged that SBP should ask banks to offer soft term credit facility to SMEs that would help them to grow fast and play effective role in strengthening the economy.
Vice President ICCI Nisar Mirza said that strengthening SMEs would yield multiple benefits for the economy as it would promote trade and industrial activities, enhance exports, encourage investment, create more jobs and increase tax revenue of the government. He emphasized that government should pay special attention to promoting SMEs that would pave way for sustainable development of the economy.
Sardar Tahir, President, Islamabad Estate Agents Association, Zahid Rafiq General Secretary, Ch. Nadeem, Khalid Chaudhry, Dildar Abbasi, Muhammad Faheem Khan and others were present at the occasion.—INP

With a significant growth of some 195 per cent, mobile phone #banking transactions in #Pakistan crossed the Rs410 billion mark in fiscal year (FY18). #mobilemoney #payments #financialinclusion https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/09/30/mobile-banking-trans...

With a significant growth of some 195 per cent, mobile phone banking transactions in Pakistan had crossed the Rs410 billion mark in the last fiscal year (FY18).

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), mobile phone/app-based banking was being offered by 21 banks to 3.4 million registered users by the end of June 2018.

Intra-bank and Inter-bank fund transfer were the main contributors in total mobile phone banking transactions. Intra-bank fund transfers contributed 5.8 (26.6 per cent) million transactions by volume and Rs 186.2 (45.4 per cent) billion by value. Inter-bank fund transfers contributed 5 million (22.9 per cent) transactions by volume and Rs196.4 million (47.9 per cent) by value.

Utility bill payments had the share of 10.1 million (46.3 per cent) by volume and Rs10.5 billion (2.6 per cent) by value within the overall mobile banking volume and value transactions respectively.

Call centres/IVR banking channel processed 0.3 million transactions amounting to Rs8.7 million. This channel facilitates Intra and Inter-bank fund transfers, utility bill payments.

As on June 30, 2018, there were 26.5 million call centres/IVR banking channel registered users with banks. It also facilitates 16 million non-financial transactions during the year.

The e-banking channels, i-e real-time online branches (RTOB), ATMs, e-commerce, internet, mobile phone and call centres collectively processed 756.4 million transactions of value Rs 47.4 trillion during the last fiscal year. These transactions showed significant growth of 21 per cent and 28 per cent in both volume and value of transactions compared to previous year FY17.

During the year under review, RTOB processed 165.7 million transactions of Rs 39.9 trillion. These transactions depicted the YoY growth of 15 per cent and 28 per cent in volume and value of transactions respectively compared to the previous year.

#Easypaisa launches QR #payment method in universities across #Pakistan inc #Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), National University of Science & Technology (#NUST) in #Islamabad, FAST National University, #Karachi University. #mobilemoney https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/technology/easypaisa-launches-qr-pa...

Easypaisa, Pakistan’s first digital payments platform launches “Easypaisa QR”, the first of its kind cashless payment system, in more than 137 educational institutes across Pakistan.

Some of the prominent universities where the Easypaisa QR payments systems have been successfully deployed are Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), National University of Science & Technology (NUST), FAST National University, Karachi University & Punjab Group of Colleges.

With this, Easypaisa aims to be a part of the youth’s lifestyle by changing their conventional payment methods to digital and by giving the youth of Pakistan convenience in carrying out their everyday financial transactions.

Easypaisa QR not only permits students with convenience of their payments in this digital age but also rewards them with amazing discounts.

On this introduction of Easypaisa QR Payments, Shahid Mustafa, President & CEO of Telenor Microfinance Bank says,

“QR Payments are consistent with the Bank’s commitment to bring greater ease and access to our customers. We hope these payments enhance efficiency and productivity of individual users as well as businesses by simplifying the previously cumbersome payments processes.”

Easypaisa wants to take Pakistan into the future of financial technology and aims to keep the youth of this country at the center of this financial revolution.

Taking this vision forward, we at Easypaisa work tirelessly to raise the living standards of every Pakistani by bringing innovative services and products resulting in an empowered Pakistan.

#PayPal Could Soon Launch In #Pakistan: PayPal has now entered agreements with 5 #Pakistani banks in the country to accept payments through its Xoom money transfer service for #damsfund. #damsforpakistan https://www.valuewalk.com/2018/10/paypal-launch-pakistan-report/ via @valuewalk

The dam fund was set up to collect donations to support construction of the Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand dams. Since it was created, various lawmakers and public officials have been making contributions to it, and many Pakistanis living abroad are also wanting to help out.

To support that effort, PayPal has now entered agreements with five banks in the country to accept payments through its Xoom money transfer service. According to Xoom’s own website, the five banks it is working with in Pakistan are Allied Bank, Bank Alfalah, MCB Bank, the National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Limited.

The SBP is recommending PayPal’s money transfer service to Pakistani expatriates as a faster way for them to move their donations into the dam fund. According to ProPakistani, many expats have already been sending donations via debit or credit cards, but using that method takes a few days for the funds to reach the SBP account for the dams.

By using Xoom, Pakistanis living abroad can send donations faster and have them reach the account in the same day in some cases. So far, expats have donated more than Rs. 379 million toward the construction of the two dams.

We must emphasize that the State Bank of Pakistan is only temporarily allowing PayPal transfers via Xoom, and it’s only for donations made to the dam fund. At this time, no other PayPal payments are being allowed in the country.

It sounds like this could change very soon. ProPakistani said that if Xoom helps significantly grow the amount of money in the dam fund, it could “pave the way” for PayPal to launch its mainstream service in Pakistan. Additionally, Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Omer hinted in a TV interview recently that PayPal or a similar digital payment service could launch in the country some time in the next three or four months.

We should point out that we’ve been hearing that PayPal could launch in Pakistan since at least 2015, so the deal with Xoom is far from a guarantee that this will happen. On the other hand, just working with Xoom is the closest PayPal has come to actually launching in the country, so we will just have to wait and see what happens.

#Pakistan’s First #Blockchain-Based #Remittance Service Launched Using #Alipay’s #Technology. Pak #Telenor and #Malaysia's #fintech firm Valyou offer the service. Service is expected to enhance the #efficiency and #speed of remittances 
https://www.ccn.com/pakistans-first-blockchain-based-remittance-ser...

A Pakistani financial institution has rolled out a cross-border remittance service based on blockchain technology developed by Alibaba affiliate, Alipay.

Telenor Microfinance Bank and Malaysian fintech firm Valyou have partnered to offer the service to that will operate between Malaysia and Pakistan. The service is expected to enhance the efficiency and speed of remittances from the former to the latter.

Additionally, Pakistan’s first blockchain-based remittance service will eliminate intermediary costs making it cheaper to send money. Users will also be able to track the remittances at ‘every step of the way’, according to a statement.

Lucrative Remittance Market
At the moment, it is estimated that Pakistanis living and working in Malaysia send around $1 billion annually. This is about 5% of the estimated $20 billion in remittances that is sent by the combined Pakistani diaspora spread across the globe. The State Bank of Pakistan’s governor, Tariq Bajwa, noted during the launch of the service that remittances contribute significantly to the country’s economy.

At around USD 20 billion per year, international remittances are important from the perspective of overall macroeconomic stability and their positive spillover in improving lives of millions of families. Home remittances contributed to over 6% in GDP, equivalent to over 50% of our trade deficit, 85% of exports and over one-third of imports during FY 2017-18.

This is not the first time that Alipay is involved in a blockchain-based remittance solution in Asia. Mid last year, Hong Kong-based AlipayHK announced a blockchain-based money transfer service between Hong Kong and the Philippines.

https://twitter.com/CryptoCoinsNews/status/101157117132065177

During the launch of the service the founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, indicated that he had long wanted to reduce remittance costs between China and Pakistan:

This comes from a promise I made a long time ago when Alipay was just launched. I have friends who are Filipino and they asked me when they could use Alipay to send money home because it was too expensive through banks, which charge too much.

Filipino Remittance Market
Currently, the Philippines is the world’s third-largest remittance market. In 2017, inflows into the Southeast Asian country amounted to approximately $3 billion. A significant proportion of the expatriate community in Hong Kong hails from the Philippines. In 2016, Filipinos in the city-state are estimated to have remitted $561 million to their home country.

Another Chinese firm that recently announced plans to launch a remittance service in the Philippines is Huaren Capital. Unlike Alipay, Huaren Capital will launch a stablecoin pegged to the Filipino Peso and partner with local banks.

Cut in import duty: FBR shatters MoI&P’s mobile handset-making policy dream

https://www.brecorder.com/2020/01/07/559644/cut-in-import-duty-fbr-...

Currently one Chinese joint venture has been established to manufacture 3G/4G mobile phones in Karachi and few companies have set up their manufacturing facilities in collaboration with Chinese Principals; (vi) over the next 2-3 years local production can reach up to 80 percent of total Pakistan handset market if attractive tariff plan is given to the industry; (vii) creation of up to 100,000 hi-skill direct jobs in electronics & information technology industry & up to 400,000 in-direct jobs in ancillary sectors; (viii) a typical smart phone constitutes more than 60 parts and its assembly is a labor intensive. Pakistan can benefit from its low labor cost; (ix) China exports US $150 billion worth of smart phones every year and Chinese investors are looking for alternate manufacturing base in view of trade war with USA. Pakistan can become a hub for Chinese manufacturers in case an attractive policy and predictability is ensured to the industry for at-least five years and ;(x) local assembly will help create an echo system for development of local mobile software, applications and R&D centers in Pakistan.

“We are expecting 2,000 jobs if the local mobile sets policy is approved by the federal government," the sources added.

Meet the Investor Who Spots Opportunities for Jeffrey Katzenberg
Anthony Saleh oversees a growing venture-capital fund at the former Hollywood chief’s WndrCo, after its Quibi video app collapsed. He also works with the rapper Nas.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-investor-who-spots-opportunit...

While working with Nas several years ago, Mr. Saleh cold-emailed Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to discuss ideas, Mr. Horowitz said. The two men got to know one another, and in 2013, Mr. Saleh called Mr. Horowitz to say he and Nas were interested in bitcoin after seeing how many “unbanked” people in the world had no checking account but did have a cellphone—a dynamic he said could decentralize finance. When Mr. Horowitz later heard about Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, he brought the duo into the investment.

Last year, Coinbase Global Inc. was one of six investments in Mr. Saleh’s personal portfolio that ended in a public offering.

Meet the Investor Who Spots Opportunities for Jeffrey Katzenberg
Anthony Saleh oversees a growing venture-capital fund at the former Hollywood chief’s WndrCo, after its Quibi video app collapsed. He also works with the rapper Nas.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-investor-who-spots-opportunit...

While working with Nas several years ago, Mr. Saleh cold-emailed Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to discuss ideas, Mr. Horowitz said. The two men got to know one another, and in 2013, Mr. Saleh called Mr. Horowitz to say he and Nas were interested in bitcoin after seeing how many “unbanked” people in the world had no checking account but did have a cellphone—a dynamic he said could decentralize finance. When Mr. Horowitz later heard about Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, he brought the duo into the investment.

Last year, Coinbase Global Inc. was one of six investments in Mr. Saleh’s personal portfolio that ended in a public offering.

VEON Subsidiary Pushes Digital Inclusion in Pakistan

Tommy Clift | Reporter

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/veon-subsidiary-pushes-dig...

Mobilink Microfinance Bank (MMBL) launched a trio of initiatives to accelerate financial inclusion for farmers and female entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The move echoes another by its parent company VEON to promote digital access through its subsidiary Kyvistar.

The MMBL plans include an agriculture advisory service for Pakistani farmers, e-commerce services for female entrepreneurs, and 4G handsets. VEON CEO Kaan Terzioglu believes the initiatives will play a pivotal role in digitalizing the microfinance industry in Pakistan.


VEON noted in a statement that agriculture represents nearly 23% of Pakistan’s gross domestic product and employs approximately 37% of its workforce. Recent floods in the country destroyed 3.6 million acres of crops and killed 700,000 livestock, it added.

MMBL is partnering with Pakistan-based agricultural technology company BaKhabar Kissan to provide information and guidance on livestock management, weather monitoring, crop planting – including which are profitable, and boosting agricultural yields.

“We are aiming to build a digital infrastructure that will help further economic prosperity and financial empowerment among women business owners and small and medium-sized farmers in the country, two segments that have the potential to transform Pakistan’s economic future,” MMBL President and CEO Ghazanfar Azzam stated.

Their push to incentivize and advance female entrepreneurs comes with their collaboration with Pakistan e-commerce platforms Daraz and its flagship Women Inspirational Network (WIN) program. This is intend to promote a female-focused, “digital financial ecosystem” using their subscriber base – currently accounting for 53% of the 195 million cellular subscribers in Pakistan, according to VEON.

Women make up nearly half of the country’s population, but VEON notes “their financial inclusion figure stands at 7%.”

The new program will use the Digit 4G handsets to “drive participation in the digital economy among marginalized groups within the population.” The handsets will be discounted and targeted at female entrepreneurs, coming “pre-loaded with the digital banking application, MMBL DOST, which will enable customers to obtain quick financial assistance, pay bills, make money transfers, and use a vast array of digital banking services,” VEON explained.

Pakistan’s Digital Lending Revolution
Not only is increased digital lending the need of the hour, it is also a very attractive business proposition.

https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1144545/pakistans-digital-lending-revo...

The cruel spiral of poverty plagues generations once it takes grip. It takes money to make money. This is especially true of emerging and undocumented economies like ours. It takes money to educate one’s children, without which income prospects greatly diminish for the next generation. It also takes money for a small business owner to invest in stock or supplies. Without this, no income is generated from the business which feeds a disproportionate number of people downstream. Often, health issues can devastate families and their fortunes because a head of household was not able to afford medical treatment.

Poverty is not new. However, we have, for the first time in history, witnessed such a massive and rapid deliberate reduction in the world’s poverty. China systematically lifted 800 million people out of its poverty spiral over a relatively short 40-year period. There are many lessons in this for Pakistan, the biggest of which is that it is indeed possible to turn the corner for our people.

China relied heavily on digital technologies that financially included a significant portion of its population, and also connected them for commerce with each other. Mobile smartphone penetration, online connectivity, digital payments, and online commerce became key catalysts of income mobility. The ensuing digital footprints paved the way to provide credit to people who were previously undocumented and thus un-lendable. There is no debate now that access to credit is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty. And today, digital access to credit can reduce poverty at scales and speeds previously unimaginable.

Pakistan has recently undergone its digital revolution. Today 80% of adults in Pakistan have access to internet-connected smartphones. About a third have made digital payments. Seventy percent of new bank accounts over the last five years were contributed by mobile wallets. Our chowkidars, mazdoors and corner store owners are all on WhatsApp and avidly consuming TikToks. E-commerce, although still relatively small with a market size of about six billion dollars annually, has shown one of the fastest growths globally. Key catalysts of income mobility are now present for us to take advantage of.

So why do less than two percent of our population receive loans from formal financial institutions? Because formal financial institutions employ traditional ways of establishing creditworthiness, by collecting documents. The size of our undocumented economy is at least as large as our formal economy and comprises the vast majority of our population. With no signals of creditworthiness, money is not lent. With poor signals of creditworthiness, money is lent but de-risked by pledging tangible assets, which are uncommon among the poor.

The scarcity of credit given by banks to consumers and small businesses is further compounded by the fact that it is hard work to give small loans with cumbersome and expensive physical processes. There is little incentive to serve these key segments, especially compared to the easy, safe and large lending appetite of our government. Nearly three-quarters of all the money deposited across banks is given to the government in the form of loans or investments by banks. This voracious appetite and easy profit from the government has crowded out private sector needs.

Pakistan’s Digital Lending Revolution
Not only is increased digital lending the need of the hour, it is also a very attractive business proposition.

https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1144545/pakistans-digital-lending-revo...


The good news is that the recent influx of venture capital into start-ups has led to the emergence of many new innovative financial technology (fintech) companies to solve these problems. Signals such as salary information, sales receipts and supply purchase data are being digitised and leveraged to establish creditworthiness with great success. Pakistani innovators benefit from the learnings from other emerging markets that previously cracked these problems with great success, including China, Indonesia, Africa and others. It should be no surprise that digital lending has started to make great progress in Pakistan.


For digital lending to truly take off in Pakistan, three key pieces of the ecosystem need to come together in a symbiotic manner: banks or money suppliers, fintechs and digital data-generating platforms. Banks are flush with cheap deposits from zero mark-up current accounts and therefore have the capital to lend. Fintechs, whose licences are governed under progressive lighter weight regulations, efficiently package small business and consume uncollateralised loans by acquiring and scoring them digitally. And finally, the platforms that collect the digital footprints of small businesses and consumers through transactional workflows, provide reliable signals for lending. They also embed financial services from fintechs into their platforms. The good news is that there are already several examples of all three stakeholders collaborating to lend in Pakistan with stellar results.

Pakistan’s five million micro and small businesses are stuck in a stagnant cash flow-starved hand-to-mouth status quo. Yet, they constitute 40% of our GDP and employ almost 80% of our non-agricultural workforce. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) lending data from fintechs shows that access to capital increases SME income by an average of 30%. Digital lending at scale to small businesses will have a tremendous impact on our economy, employment and standard of living. Similarly, less than 0.35% of people have received housing loans and consequently, home ownership remains dismally low. It is clearly in the country’s interest for responsible digital lending to take off.

Not only is increased digital lending the need of the hour, but it is also a very attractive business proposition. We have seen the entry of several well-funded foreign lending apps that have sprayed thousands of loans using sparse scoring data. As a result, their first cycle loan losses are exceptionally high, requiring expensive pricing to cover defaults. Many of these apps are unlicenced and engage in predatory practices. Customers are misled through claims of reasonably priced loans while hidden fees result in expensive triple-digit markup rates. Furthermore, the address books of customers are often harvested and their contacts are harassed if loans are not repaid on time. Most people who take loans from these apps are first-time borrowers with little financial literacy and can easily become over-indebted. Access to affordable credit with dignity is an important measure of a society’s evolution.

Pakistan’s Digital Lending Revolution
Not only is increased digital lending the need of the hour, it is also a very attractive business proposition.

https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1144545/pakistans-digital-lending-revo...


Clearly, increased regulatory oversight is urgently needed to keep pace with the innovations in digital lending that we are seeing in the field. Informal players like these loan apps and your local electronics store do not share loan repayment behaviour with credit bureaus. This results in financial institutions approving loans that are unlikely to be repaid, ruining future credit access to a vulnerable segment that can benefit most from them. This must be carefully monitored and regulators must encourage lenders to utilise high-quality data to minimise defaults and keep loans affordable for greater impact. For example, low default rates of working capital loans that leverage actual business transactional data through embedded digital workflows allow small businesses to negotiate better rates. These digital loans scored using rich data give power back to small business owners who can in turn profitably grow their businesses and hire more workers.

In addition, as data becomes more sought, stored, and potentially shared, our consumer data protection laws will be tested and likely need to be updated. We will inevitably hear about large-scale data breaches and their aftereffects. While data leaks must be prevented and privacy protected, platforms across the ecosystem must also integrate and share data responsibly. This must happen with consumer consent. Combined data sets will produce richer signals to unlock more opportunities. Seldom in human history have we had such powerful tools to uplift our population in such a short period. One hundred and ten million digitally connected and transacting Pakistanis will produce rich footprints to enable lending for themselves and their businesses. When regulated and executed responsibly, digital lending has the potential to uplift millions of Pakistanis out of poverty and significantly raise Pakistan’s GDP. Amid the doom and gloom, exciting times lie ahead.

Pakistan cracks down on sketchy digital lending

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/28/pakistan-cracks-down-on-sketchy-d...


Pakistan’s markets regulator issued new guidelines for digital lending in the country, cracking down on several sketchy practices that it said have become prevalent in the South Asian market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan said Wednesday evening that non-banking finance companies that disburse loans through digital channels, including mobile apps, will be required to disclose key fact statements such as the credit amount they are granting to consumers, annual percentage rates, duration of the loan and “all fee and charges.”

The non-banking finance firms will be required to share these key facts with consumers through audio or video and emails and text messages in both English and Urdu languages. “Any fee not included in key fact statement will not be charged to the borrower,” the regulator said (PDF) in a press release.

These firms will also not be able to access borrower’s phone book or contacts lists or pictures on the device “even if the borrower has given consent in this regard,” the regulator said. (You can read the full guidelines here {PDF}.)

“The lender shall also not be allowed to contact the persons in the borrower’s contact list, other than those who have been specifically authorized by the borrower as guarantors and who have also provided their consent to the digital lender at the time of loan approval,” it added.

The move follows the regulator noticing a rise in mis-selling, breach of data privacy and “coercive” recovery practices of licensed digital lending companies” and to safeguard public interest, it said.

Neighboring nation India also introduced strict rules surrounding digital lending in a move that has toppled the local fintech industry.

https://www.secp.gov.pk/document/circular-no-15-of-2022-requirement...

Financial inclusion in Pakistan increases to 30% - Profit by Pakistan Today

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2023/02/08/financial-inclusion-...


https://portal.karandaaz.com.pk/dataset/financial-digital-inclusion...


KARACHI: Financial inclusion in Pakistan has increased by 9 basis points from 2020 to 2022 and women’s access, specifically has hit a double-digit percentage for the first time, as recorded by a survey conducted by Karandaaz Pakistan.

As defined by the World Bank, “financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.” This means conducting transactions through banks, mobile money and fintech.

The Karandaaz Financial Inclusion Survey (K-FIS) measures the percentage of adults above the age of 15 who report having at least one account in their name with an institution that offers a full range of financial services that is also documented by the government of Pakistan.

Following a significant jump in financial inclusion between 2017 and 2020, K-FIS recorded a substantial rise in the level of financial inclusion from 21% in 2020 to 30% of adults in 2022. Registered mobile money users more than doubled with an increase from 9% to 19%, while registered bank users also increased by 4 basis points over the same period.

By region, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) recorded the highest level of financial inclusion at 45%, followed by Gilgit Baltistan at 35% and Azad Jammu & Kashmir at 34%.

Looking at the division by gender, male registration accounted for the bulk of financial account registrations in 2022 with 47% having at least one registered financial account. Comparatively, only 13% of women are recorded to have at least one registered financial account. Although women’s percentage accounts for less than half of their male counterparts, the financial account registration for women has reached double digits for the first time.

Overall, the largest increase was seen in mobile money wallet users, as active usage increased from 8% in 2020 to 16% in 2022. Active usage also saw an increase in bank account holders, indicating an increase from 12% in 2020 to 14% in 2022.

Addressing the webinar held by Karandaaz Pakistan on February 7, 2023, Noor Ahmed, Director of the Agri Finance and Financial Inclusion Department of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said, “Over the years, there has been significant progress on financial inclusion. Key initiatives such as RAAST have been transformative in furthering the inclusion of the marginalised.”

Karandaaz Pakistan is a not-for-profit special-purpose vehicle set up under Section 42 in August 2014. The company is the implementation partner of the Enterprise and Asset Growth Programme (EAGR) and Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) programme of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).