KARACHI: The number of bank accounts in Pakistan rose to 66.13 million by the end of March 2022, up 6.66 percent compared to 62 million bank accounts by the end of the same month last year, according to data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
It is interesting to note that the statistics showed that the population grew much faster than the increase in bank accounts. The SBP showed the country’s estimated population of 227 million by the end of March 2022 compared to 212 million in the same period last year, a growth of 7.07 percent.
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Last year, the total number of banks in the country remained the same at 44. However, the number of bank branches increased to 16,788 by the end of March 2022, compared to 16,223 by the end of the same month last year.
SBP presented the following key highlights from the payments system review for the quarter ended March 30, 2022.
One EMI, M/s China Mobile Pakistan Electronic Commerce Company (CMPECC), was granted a commercial license in Q3 through FY22.
The number of POS devices reached 96,975, while the number of payment cards fell slightly to 47.2 million from 48.7 million last quarter.
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E-banking volume and value grew 2.6 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, on a quarterly (QoQ) basis.
The number of Internet banking users reached 7.6 million and recorded a 10.6 percent QoQ growth. These users completed 38.3 million transactions worth PKR 2,906.9 billion, representing quarterly growth of 13.5 percent by volume and 19.9 percent by value.
In the same quarter, 38.3 million POS transactions worth PKR 189.7 billion were completed, representing quarterly growth of 21.9 percent by volume and 6.5 percent by value.
A total of 9.1 million e-commerce transactions worth PKR 27.0 billion were completed digitally, showing quarterly value growth of 1.3 percent on a volume decline of -32.7 percent.
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Number of ATMs increased by 1.1 percent compared to the previous quarter. The value of ATM transactions totaled PKR 2,437.0 billion, of which 90.5 percent transactions were related to cash withdrawals and 5.1 percent related to Inter Bank Funds Transfer (IBFT).
The number of mobile banking users fell by -1.0 percent to 12.0 million. Over 101.5 million transactions worth approximately PKR 3,085.8 billion were processed through mobile banking channels in the quarter, representing growth of 8.1 percent by volume and 5.4 percent by value.
The branch network of banks and MFBs includes 16,788 branches, including 16,643 real-time online branches (RTOB), 48 manual branches and 97 overseas branches.
The value of total RTGS (PRISM) transactions during the quarter was PKR 155.7 trillion, of which PKR 106.2 trillion was in government securities.
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