‘Lack of policy support stifling fintech growth’

ISLAMABAD: Lack of policy support for digital solutions and unwillingness of small business to opt for the cashless economy was restricting the growth of fintech, an industry official said on Wednesday.

“All financial services must be open for all banks, this includes the small and micro finance banks, and these services includes payment of challans and fees of various government departments ranging from traffic police to school fees etc,” said Omar Moeen Malik, Business Head of Easypaisa, during a news briefing.

The press conference was organised to unveil Easypaisa’s plans to jack up the number of its active users from current 8 million to 25 million by 2025.

Malik also highlighted the economic growth and the future of the financial services was in cashless economy but Pakistan was at the lowest tier in South Asia this regard, just above Afghanistan.

He said one out of three smartphone owners were using Easypaisa App that on average were making 800 million transactions worth Rs1.5 trillion --4 percent of country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We will jack up from 8 million active users to 25 million till 2025. With the Mobile Manufacturing Policy, the prices of smartphones are expected to be reduced so the Easypaisa is bound to grow.”

Malik said they undertook all precautionary measures to curb phishing as frauds were occurring so he would advise customers that there was no need to share their basic data and information with anyone.

In case of a fraud without any leakage of information, customers would get their stolen money back.

In most of the cases, he said, it was found that the customers had provided information about the PIN of their account so there was need to create awareness among the customers.

Malik said that they were fully complying with Anti Money Laundering and Know Your Customers (KYC) requirements in line with FATF requirements.

“If any unusual information surfaces during the process of due diligence, we generate Suspicious Transaction Report (STRs) for sharing with relevant authorities.”

After being launched in 2009, Easypaisa currently has more than 8 million active users per month, while it has 170,000 registered agents across the country and more than 25 million registered wallets.

Responding to the query, the head of business Easypaisa said that with growing usage the demand for cyber protection too had increased and several security features had been introduced in the Easypaisa app such as protection with face ID, fingerprint recognition, number detection, OCR and Geo fencing etc.