ISLAMABAD – Plastic Money users in Pakistan hit highest level of historyaccording to the latest data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
SBP reveals the number of plastic money users increased to 42.2 million byMarch this year as compared to 40.1 million users reported by the end ofthe same month last year, showing a good growth of 5.2%.
Banks usually offer ATMs/Debit cards to the customers when they open anaccount, this is against an annual fee, which is availed by the customerregardless of the charges owed to the bank for handling their funds.
On the other hand, banks offer discounts to their customers for usingdebit/credit cards when purchasing goods and services in various cities.
Customers coming to the system are availing new features such as MobileApps and internet banking but most people prefer debit cards instead.
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As per SBP, the number of debit cards stands at 23.9 million, which is over50% of the total share of plastic money. It is followed by ATM only cards,which are 8.6 million. The number of credit cards in the circulation of thebanking system are a mere 1.6 million. PrePaid cards’ users stand at 0.2million, while the users of social welfare cards (BISP) stand at 7.7million.
On average, customers of plastic money made 49.3 million transactions witha total value of Rs. 560 billion per month in 2019.
