KARACHI – Pakistan’s branchless banking had an impressive quarter as transactions crossed 1 billion mark for the first time in history.
Data shared by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) shows that 22 percent of transactions are for bill payments and mobile top-ups, while an impressive 43 percent are for fund transfers.
Banks and Microfinance Banks saw 1,088.3 million branchless banking transactions worth over Rs5billion in the quarter ending on December 31, 2023, showing a year-on-year growth of 12 percent in volume and 12.5 percent in value.
Mobile Wallet transfers remains second in transaction value of Rs965 billion, followed by transfers from MWs to customers’ banking accounts that equates to Rs756 billion.
During the quarter, the average transaction size was Rs4,646, higher than the same period last year. State Bank said the average daily transactions soared by 12 percent year-on-year to 12 million compared to 10.8 million last year.
The country’s most populated region Punjab accounted 71 million of the Branchless Banking transactions while Sindh ranked second with 23.3 million and KP came in third with 14.7 million.
The total number of branchless banking accounts clocked in at 114.6 million during the quarter. Males were mile ahead with over 79.5 million accounts while 35.1 million were female-owned accounts.
