Syed Sohail Javaad, Executive Director for Digital Financial Services Group at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), stated on Tuesday that the country’s instant payment system Raast is on par with comparable systems established by developed and developing nations across the world.
“You must consider all possibilities.” “The SBP has provided you with all of the tools that are being used globally, (especially) in India and China,” he said at the TerraBiz Retail Show 2023.
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According to Mr. Javaad, consumers are gradually turning away from cash and toward mobile banking, with the yearly value transacted through mobile channels growing every year.
In 2022-23, the number of mobile banking transactions climbed to 660.6 million, with a total value of Rs23.8 trillion. This equates to a 70.5 percent increase in volume and a 100.5 percent increase in value year on year.
According to the SBP official, transitioning from cash to digital channels often results in a seven to eightfold rise in payments. “Businesses should adopt digitization to increase sales,” he added, stressing that Raast is chosen by the country’s youthful, tech-savvy populace.
The instant payment system, which was just launched a few years ago, already has 34 million unique IDs, which is equivalent to the entire number of debit cards issued by all commercial and microfinance banks combined.
Every day, 1.3 million person-to-person (P2P) transactions take place on Raast, with an average daily value of Rs28 billion.
On Tuesday, Mr Javaad also announced the formal launch of the SBP’s person-to-merchant (P2M) online payment system within Raast. The P2M system will allow merchants and small enterprises to accept real-time payments from their consumers.
In terms of P2M functionality, he stated that merchants will have aliases on Raast, similar to how users have handles on X, formerly known as Twitter. Additionally, companies will be able to create aliases with distinct till codes for each checkout till used by different tellers.
The P2M system will allow retailers to employ Raast QR codes, which can be static or dynamic. A static QR code can be printed and displayed on a merchant’s counter. The consumer will access the Raast option in their banking app, scan the code, enter the amount in rupees, and complete the payment in no time.
A dynamic QR code, on the other hand, will include the amount and will be produced independently for each consumer by the merchant. In this situation, the consumer will just scan the code and press the ‘pay’ button.
Request to pay is yet another element of the new P2M system. This will be useful while paying one’s power bill, school fees, or municipal taxes. “Every invoice or challan is a payment request.” Anyone may now begin a payment request in Raast. “All a customer has to do is open their app and say yes to the payment request,” he explained.
E-commerce firms, for example, may simply print a QR code and attach it on top of their delivery package. According to him, the P2M technology would allow the client to scan the code and pay at the moment of delivery.
