KARACHI – State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr. Reza Baqir, launchedthe National Payment Systems Strategy (NPSS) in an event held here onFriday at its headquarters.
President of the World Bank, David Robert Malpass was the chief guest atthe event that was attended by key stakeholders including regulators,government entities, banks, telcos, Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs),Payment System Operators (PSOs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) andother Fintechs.
Addressing on the occasion, Governor SBP welcomed David Malpass and otherWorld Bank officials to SBP and thanked them for their support in thepreparation of this strategy.
The Governor highlighted the benefits that the NPSS would bring to thepeople and economy of Pakistan and said “this strategy lays out a road mapand action plan for Pakistan to have a modern and robust digital paymentsnetwork”.
Elaborating the benefits further, he said that the key goal of thisstrategy would be to make access to financial services easier for peopleand help in improving financial inclusion in the country, particularly forwomen, along with greater documentation of the economy.
He briefed that SBP has adopted a proactive approach to innovation and willcontinue to support the digitization of banking and payments in Pakistan.“Going forward, as part of the implementation of this strategy, SBP willcontinue to focus on strengthening the legal and regulatory framework tobring it in line with international best practices, he added.
Dr. Baqir also announced the issuing of the rules for digital onboarding ofmerchant, which will help increasing the touch points for digital paymentsin Pakistan.
The Governor also shared that SBP is developing a faster payment systemthat will simplify the requesting, receiving and sending of payments in thecountry.
President World Bank, David Malpass, giving his keynote address,congratulated the SBP for launching the NPSS.
He said that there is great potential to be unlocked in Pakistan and thelaunch today is an important step.
Malpass said that this effort by the central bank is coming at a good timebecause there has been time to stabilize after the start of the newadministration and that stabilization will facilitate growth, going forward.
He appreciated the role of SBP as a regulator and catalyst of digitizationof banking and payments in Pakistan. He highlighted that Pakistan’s pathwaytowards digital financial inclusion centers on push towards usage ofdigital financial services and not only SBP but also all stakeholders areresponsible to drive digital payments reforms.
Further, he extended full support to SBP in implementation of key economicreforms and action items as highlighted in the strategy.