Over 37 million payment cards issued in first quarter: SBP

KARACHI: The number of total payment cards issued in Pakistan rose 3.2 percent to 37.8 million in the first quarter of the current fiscal year from 36.6 million in the last quarter of the previous fiscal, the central bank’s payment systems review said on Thursday.

During the quarter ended September 30, 2017, the number of reported debit cards was 18.8 million that processed 100.1 million (80.3 percent) transactions worth Rs1,106.4 billion (84.9 percent).

The number of reported credit cards in circulation was 1.3 million. The number of transactions was 7.9 million (6.3 percent) worth Rs45.9 billion (3.5 percent).

“The remaining number of cards consisted of ATMs only, pre-paid and social welfare cards,” the State bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in review for the July-September FY18 period.

Consumers carried out 0.8 million online e-commerce transactions worth Rs4.8 billion through these registered e-commerce merchants during the quarter under review. These transactions depicted a significant quarterly growth of 100.6 percent in volume and 50.5 percent in value, respectively.

In the quarter under review, 1.3 million e-commerce transactions, amounting to Rs7.9 billion were carried out across the globe using domestically issued debt, credit and prepaid cards.

The SBP reviewed 118.8 million transactions worth Rs37.4 trillion in the quarter, which were carried out using paper-based instruments; over the counter cash deposits, cheques, pay orders, demand drafts etc.

These transactions showed a quarterly decline of 0.3 percent in volume and 7.6 percent in value of transactions.

The SBP also said Pakistan Real Time Interbank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM) – RTGS PRISM is playing a key role in the financial infrastructure of the country.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal, 0.4 million transactions amounting to Rs88.1 trillion were processed by PRISM. As compared to the previous quarter, the value of these transactions grew by 3.2 percent and the volume of these transactions showed a quarterly decline of 2.9 percent compared to the previous quarter.

The report showed that as on September 30, 2017 there were 44 banks with a total of 14,422 branches all over the country. The number of these bank branches depicted a quarterly growth of 0.9 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Except 21 branches, all the branches in the country are providing real time online banking service. Digital (e-banking) channels - automated teller machines, point of sale, mobile phone banking, internet banking, call centres and e-commerce channels processed 171.8 million transactions worth Rs9.1 trillion during the quarter under review.

Real Time Online Banking (RTOB) processed 37.2 million transactions worth Rs7.5 trillion, of which online cash deposits had the highest share at 46.8 percent with value share of 23.2 percent.

The share of real-time online intra-bank fund transfers was 31.8 percent in volume and 67.8 percent in value of transactions, while online cash withdrawals contributed 21.4 percent and 8.9 percent share in volume and value of transaction, respectively.

The number of ATMs installed by 31 banks in the country reached 12,963 from 12,689 which showed a quarterly growth of 2.2 percent.