KARACHI
\nState Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has so far received 20 applications for digital banking against the announced five licenses to be awarded soon to the successful institutions, as banks are at the crux of the second digital revolution in the country.
\nDue diligence (of banks and financial institutions applied for digital banking license) is underway and we will be hopefully issuing licenses pretty soon,\u201d said Syed Irfan Ali, who is Managing Director of SBP subsidiary Deposit Protection Corporation (DPC).
\nSources said that the central bank has decided to issue only five licenses in the beginning to kick-start the journey in digital banking, he said while speaking at the 15th international conference on \u2018Mobile Commerce 2022\u2019 organized by Total Communications in Karachi on Wednesday.
\nThe financial institutions that have applied for a digital banking license, are including the top five banks operating in the country. \u201c20 digital banking applications\u2026where do we end?\u201d Ali questioned and answered in the same breath \u201cThere is no end. This is just the beginning (of digital baking in Pakistan).\u201d \u201cMaybe the QR code, thumb impression, or hands in the air (to conduct financial transactions) may be the next level of future banking,\u201d he said.
\nHe hoped the forthcoming digital banks may offer banking services to unbanked people and businesses in remote areas including Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering areas, Thatta, Thar, Cholistan, Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu.
\n\u201cThey are not out of Pakistan, but the party of the country,\u201d he said while adding bankers at the conference. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to connect non-resident Pakistanis with banks operating in the country.
\n\u201cSo, SBP, (the then) governor Reza Baqir, I (Ali himself) and the team, we embarked on a journey of digitization and we said that we can get to non-resident Pakistanis (through Roshan Digital Account \/ RDA) and we will make life easier for them.\u201d Accordingly, RDA inflows crossed the $4.5 billion mark with a record one-day inflows of $57 million on June 21, he said.
\nAli claimed it was the Pakistani who first formed rules and regulations for branchless banking in the world and acquired a fantastic result of that. \u201cBranchless banking was\u2026something out of the box. That was the first time that we came out with regulations, no one has such regulations in the world (at that time).\u201d
\nShazad G. Dada, President, and CEO, of UBL Bank, said in his video message that Pakistan is about to embark on a second digital revolution in the banking sector ahead of the award of digital banking licenses. \u201cPakistan is at the crux of the second digital revolution\u2026amid a lot of happening in the domestic economy,\u201d he said. Banks, telecom, and technology firms have formed a fantastic collaboration under the first digital revolution in Pakistan.
\nOmar El Gammal, SVP Global Business Development, Paymob, Egypt, announced that Paymob has entered into Pakistani market to primarily provide online and digital banking services to the SME sector.
\nThe Egyptian digital payment company \u201cwould deploy 100,000 merchants over the next two years in Pakistan,\u201d he said. Qasif Shahid, Co-founder & CEO of Finja said PWC has placed Pakistan\u2019s economy among the top 32 countries around the world by 2030. Other speakers said digital banking may appear challenging.
\nAt the same time, major benefits of banking would be including accelerating the drive for financial inclusion, reduction in banking costs and getting rid of paper-based banking. The one-day conference also featured four-panel discussions including Digital Banks: The Dawn of a New Era?; Digital Lending: Insights from Actual Practice, How is Fintech Disrupting Commerce and Islamic and Digital Finance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has so far received 20 applications for digital banking against the announced five licenses to be awarded soon to the successful institutions, as banks are at the crux of the second digital revolution in the country. Due diligence (of banks and financial institutions applied for digital banking license) is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-267634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n