State Bank, PTA sign MoU to promote mobile banking
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote mobile banking in Pakistan, a statement said on Wednesday.
The MoU was signed by Inayat Hussain, Executive Director, SBP, and Dr Muhammad Saleem, Director General, Commercial Affairs, PTA, in the presence of SBP Governor Yaseen Anwar and PTA Chairman Dr Mohammed Yaseen, it said.
The main objective of the MoU is to develop an appropriate technological and regulatory framework through a consultative process to strengthen the mobile banking with a view to support the provision of banking services as authorised by the central bank, it said.
Under this collaboration, PTA and the SBP will act as facilitators by means of regulatory oversight and issuance of licence and designation to the Third Party Service Providers (TPSP) and setting the performance benchmarks through standardised Service Level Agreement (SLAs) between the telecom operators, TPSPs and the authorised financial institutions for carrying out financial transactions in a prudent manner through the mobile banking means, under the relevant legislative structure, it said.
The MoU is meant to develop a cohesive regulatory framework in consultation with all the stakeholders and to assist each other in achieving the common objective of providing low-cost mobile banking services, according to the statement.
In order to coordinate for smooth implementation of mobile banking and to resolve any disputes among the stakeholders, a SBP-PTA Joint Coordination Committee would be constituted, comprising senior officials of the two institutions.
To monitor the progress, representatives of the two parties would meet on a quarterly basis and suggest measures to improve or further expand the framework as and when the need arises, the statement said.
On the occasion, the SBP governor said that over 800,000 branchless banking accounts have so far been opened, while the average number of transactions per day is around 180,000 and the average ticket size per transaction stands at Rs3,700.
The agents network under the umbrella of branchless banking has exceeded 20,000, who have helped channelise 50 million financial transactions worth more than Rs190 billion, while the number of bank branches is only 10,000, he said.
These agents outlets and touch points are spread across several cities, towns and smaller villages in Pakistan, he added.
The SBP governor said that the branchless banking has also proved to be an effective instrument in channelising the government to person (G2P) payments in trying times such as serving internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the people affected by devastating floods and rains for the last two years.
The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) beneficiaries are also being served effectively through this mechanism, he said, adding that this channel is expected to continue playing an important role towards promotion of financial inclusion and the management of government to person (G2P) programmes such as salary disbursements, pensions, BISP, Watan Cards, Pakistan Cards and tax collection services, etc.
“The existing branchless banking deployments can cater to the needs of over 10 million potential beneficiaries of G2P payments in Pakistan,” said Anwar.
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