Online banking users number increases to 13 million

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced that the number of active online banking users in Pakistan grew by 36% to 13.22 million individuals and increased the volume of online banking transactions to more than PKR2 trillion in the covid-19 pandemic, similar to the same quarter last year, during the quarter ended September 30, 2020.

In its Payment System Analysis for the first quarter of July-September of the current financial year 2020-2021, the central bank disclosed these figures. “The growth in transactions through the mobile and internet banking channels was quite promising,” SBP said in its analysis. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these outlets presented consumers with a fast and round-the-clock option to satisfy their everyday financial and banking needs.

Measures in place initiated by the State Bank of Pakistan to encourage digitisation during these tough times, the growing trend is anticipated to accelerate in the next quarter as well the central bank said.
According to the report, total e-banking transactions increased to 253.7 million, estimated at around PKR19.12 trillion in that year, compared to 206.5 million transactions worth PKR15.27 trillion during the quarter ended June 2020.

Mobile banking transactions rose to 36.4 million for the quarter under review and were priced at about Rs908.7 billion, reflecting an improvement of 139 percent in volume and 211 percent in value compared to the same time last year.

The study further claimed that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the figures indicated an improvement of about 23 percent in volume and 25 percent in value.