Pakistan records highest-ever branchless banking transactions

WEB DESK: In a significant milestone, branchless banking (BB) transactions in Pakistan have surpassed 1 billion for the first time in a single quarter, according to the latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.

The data highlights that bill payments and mobile top-ups together constituted 22 per cent of these transactions, while fund transfers accounted for an impressive 43 per cent of the total BB transactions.

Breaking down the figures provided by the central bank, customer-initiated transactions comprised the majority, totaling 1.08 billion, while the remaining 4 million were agent-initiated for liquidity purposes.

Regionally, Punjab (including Islamabad) led the BB transactions, contributing 66 per cent, followed by Sindh at 18 per cent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 12 per cent.

The SBP also provided insights into the gender distribution of BB accounts nationwide, with males holding 69.4 per cent and females holding 30.6 per cent out of a total of 114.64 million BB accounts in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.

The average deposit per account in the second quarter stood at Rs1,007, compared to Rs991 in the previous quarter.

Additionally, the total value of transactions saw an increase, reaching Rs5.06 billion, marking a 12.45 per cent quarterly rise.

Moreover, the number of active accounts experienced a slight uptick, rising by 1.93 per cent to 64.12 million during the review period in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.