Overview
- The State Bank of Pakistan said its FY26 review showed formal retail payments rose to 14.3 billion transactions worth Rs673 trillion as volume surged 58% year on year.
- Digital channels processed 13.2 billion transactions in FY26, lifting their share of retail payments to 92%, with mobile-based solutions alone handling more than 11.1 billion transactions.
- Point-of-sale acceptance and app use expanded materially as POS terminals reached 337,791 across 295,367 merchant locations and branchless banking app users hit 99.1 million.
- PRISM+ went live in August 2025, moving Pakistan’s RTGS to the ISO 20022 standard and enabling richer payment messages that support faster settlement and easier interoperability between banks and cross-border systems.
- The shift reflects more frequent, lower-value account-based payments for everyday purchases and e-commerce and could widen financial access while prompting regulators and firms to strengthen fraud controls and system resilience.