State Bank of Pakistan publishes Q1 FY26 payment systems review showing retail payments up 10% to 2.8 billion transactions and digital channels at 90% share

The State Bank of Pakistan has released its Quarterly Report on Payment Systems for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025-26, outlining recent developments in Pakistan’s payment ecosystem and reporting continued growth in retail and digital payments, driven primarily by increased mobile app-based banking. Retail payment volumes reached 2.8 billion transactions, up 10% quarter-on-quarter, while retail payment value rose 6% to PKR 166 trillion. Digital channels accounted for 2.5 billion transactions, representing 90% of total retail payments (up from 87% in the same quarter last year), with PKR 55 trillion in value. Mobile app-based payments led digital activity with 2.0 billion transactions via banks, branchless banking providers and electronic money institutions, representing 81% of digital payments and PKR 33.7 trillion in value. Payment cards in circulation reached 61.3 million (90% debit and 4% credit). Raast processed 544 million transactions valued at PKR 12.8 trillion, including 535 million person-to-person transactions (up 31%) worth PKR 11.3 trillion and 4.3 million person-to-merchant transactions worth PKR 17.0 billion. The report also notes 1.5 million daily card-based transactions at PoS and in e-commerce, 20,527 ATMs handling 267 million transactions worth PKR 4.5 trillion, and continued reliance on physical touchpoints, with 19,852 bank branches processing 137 million transactions worth PKR 110 trillion and 756,480 branchless banking agents facilitating 129 million transactions worth PKR 0.9 trillion.