Benefits of PayPak – Pakistan’s First Domestic Payments Scheme

The world has increasingly come to expect faster payments. Even the thought of paying for items by a simple swipe of a watch no longer raises eyebrows. Meanwhile, the process of using payments through electronic means to curtail unregulated and free markets remains futile for decades in Pakistan due to the lack of any concrete road map and regulations on electronic payment usage.

The biggest hindrance to financial inclusion is the high cost of cards based on international schemes. As a result, a huge proportion of the population is unbanked and under-served. The unbanked population doesn’t have access to the banking services and can’t use electronic mediums to pay utility bills, obtain fast and easy credits, purchase goods, get government benefits and receive remittances etc.

Integrating digital payments into the economies of emerging and developing nations addresses crucial issues of broad economic growth and individual financial empowerment. Digital financial services tied up with domestic payment scheme will not only promote financial inclusion but also foster economic growth.

In line with State Bank of Pakistan Vision 2020 to enhance and promote financial inclusion, 1LINK (Guarantee) Limited launched Pakistan’s first domestic payment Scheme PayPak aimed at providing efficient, cost-effective, robust and ubiquitous payments solutions. With this launch, Pakistan became the 28th country in the world to have their own domestic payment scheme.

With a domestic payment scheme in place, the following benefits can be achieved in short term basis:

Benefits

• Transforming the digital payments landscape in the country by ensuring digital financial access to both the un-served and underserved population while at the same time reducing the transaction cost and improving overall efficiency.
• Provides interoperability in the domestic payment ecosystem.
• Acceptability to instantly incorporate government programs at minimum cost.
• Product offerings to expand payment services and broaden access to financial services in Pakistan.
• Bringing up new innovations in technology, specific to domestic aspirations.
• In built scalability capacity for future plans of launching e-Wallet/Pre-paid program.
• Enablement of Person to Person transactions such as card to card based funds transfer by means of various payment instruments.
• Highly cost effective card scheme program.

PayPak Adaption

With TPS as their trusted technology partner, the following banks have launched cards based on PayPak scheme:

Allied Bank

Allied PayPak Debit Card empowers the bank’s customers to carry out ATM withdrawals as well as retail/POS transactions anywhere within Pakistan, with no dependency on international payment schemes. With a domestic payment scheme in place, the bank provides cost-effective payment solutions to its customers.

Askari Bank

Askari PayPak debit card holders have the ease of making cash withdrawals through all ATMs across Pakistan. Using PayPak, Askari Bank is able to provide efficient and cost-effective payments solutions to its customers.

Establishment of digital payments and adaption of robust methods for financial inclusion such as PayPak has enormous benefit for the poor population in the emerging markets. This also helps address concerns about the transparency and traceability of payments.

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