Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Pakistan’s Retail Payments Accelerate as Mobile Apps Dominate Q1 FY26

The central bank reports a broad migration to electronic channels driven by everyday smartphone use.

Overview

  • Retail payment volumes climbed to 2.8 billion in Q1 FY26, with value rising to PKR 166 trillion for quarter-on-quarter gains of 10% and 6%.
  • Digital channels accounted for 2.5 billion transactions, equal to 90% of retail activity, with PKR 55 trillion in value.
  • Mobile app usage reached 2.0 billion transactions worth PKR 33.7 trillion, representing 81% of digital payments.
  • Raast processed 544 million instant payments totaling PKR 12.8 trillion, with P2P up 31% to 535 million and P2M doubling to 4.3 million.
  • Supporting infrastructure expanded with 61.3 million cards in circulation, 1.5 million daily card transactions at PoS and e-commerce, 20,527 ATMs handling 267 million transactions worth PKR 4.5 trillion, and extensive branch and branchless networks continuing OTC services.