UBL, one of the largest private commercial banks in Pakistan, in partnership with VISA and NADRA, had successfully started the distribution of funds to the internally displaced persons of Northwest Pakistan, efficiently, securely and transparently. This is being done through Visa prepaid debit cards that are based on TPS technologies on which the entire array of UBL’s e-Banking services are supported.
TPS and UBL share a long term relationship where TPS as its technology partner has helped UBL achieve several e-Banking initiatives successfully. Like all other projects, UBL once again had the confidence that TPS will help UBL fulfill its new and challenging initiative in such a short period of time. Using the current architecture at UBL, TPS helped the bank personalize all the data of people/families whom the card needed to be issued. It is noteworthy that as per the requirement of the bank, the personalization system was made ready by TPS within a week’s time through TPS Card Personalization system “ACCeSS”.
The purpose of this entire scheme is to create a way to assist the government of Pakistan in providing aid to approximately 427,432 families which have been displaced in the war against militants in the northern area of Pakistan. UBL had the honor of being selected to do that based on UBL’s already existing robust infrastructure and its capacity to handle this project. The use of Visa-branded prepaid cards and VISA’ global electronic payment network helped to ensure that the aid was distributed quickly and accurately to the program’s beneficiaries. TPS at the forefront of innovative cards and payment technology was chosen by UBL for making the process digital and transparent for all. This scheme also reduced the cost of aid distribution for UBL and the government.
In the process, the transaction sets (and processing logics) are such that they are made specific to IDPs whereby the IDPs are able to take advantage of all the transactions that are available to the visa wallet card holders while making a few exceptions. Besides making the personalization system ready in a short period, TPS also incorporated the relevant support in UBL’s ADC Switch i.e. Phoenix to accommodate additional transaction volumes of this new card-base of approximately 0.4 Million customers. Up till today, about 427,000 cards have been issued and distributed to the IDPs, resulting in transactions of over Rs. 9.6 billion (4.9 billion via ATMs and 4.6 billion via POS). Throughput of such a high volume of transactions through UBL Phoenix is a testimony of TPS system’s flexibility, robustness, efficiency and scalability. It is noteworthy to mention that Phoenix has been able to process such a huge volume of transactions without any upgrades.
Through the launch of this program, UBL has welcomed over 400,000 new customers into its system whereby taking UBL’s e-banking services to the untapped areas of Northwest Pakistan. This has brought long term benefits to the affected areas as well as the national economy. Moreover in the process, UBL had the opportunity to gather and consolidate data of so many additional clients. The entire process of personalization and modifications in the banks transaction processing switch also served as the launching pad for future programs (e.g. Benazir Income Support Program)
