Pakistan’s digital payments continued their upward trajectory in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, according to the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) latest Quarterly Payment Systems Report released today.
Retail payment volumes rose 12% to 2,408 million transactions, with the overall value increasing by 8% to PKR 164 trillion. Digital channels handled a significant 89% of all retail transactions.
Mobile platforms, including banking apps, branchless banking (BB) wallets, and e-money wallets, processed 1,686 million transactions worth PKR 27 trillion, a 16% growth in volume and a 22% increase in value. User bases also expanded, with mobile banking app users reaching 22.6 million (up 7%), e-money wallet users at 5.3 million (up 12%), BB wallet users totaling 68.5 million (up 6%), and internet banking users hitting 14.1 million (up 7%).
E-commerce payments experienced substantial growth, with volume rising by 40% to 213 million transactions and value by 34% to PKR 258 billion. Digital wallets dominated e-commerce, accounting for 94% of transactions by value, while card-based online payments represented just 6%. For in-store transactions, 140,861 merchants processed 99 million transactions (up 12%) worth PKR 550 billion (up 8%) via 179,383 point-of-sale terminals. QR code payments also saw an increase, with 21.7 million transactions totaling PKR 61 billion.
SBP”s payment systems, Raast and RTGS, played a crucial role in this digital expansion. Raast handled 371 million transactions worth PKR 8.5 trillion during the quarter, reaching a cumulative 1.5 billion transactions and over PKR 34 trillion in value since its inception. RTGS processed 1.5 million large-value payments amounting to PKR 347 trillion.
The central bank attributes the shift towards a digital economy to its strategic policies and the combined efforts of financial institutions, fintech companies, and payment processors. The SBP remains committed to fostering financial inclusion and enhancing payment efficiency as digital transactions continue to grow.