Pakistan sees PKR 166 trillion in retail payments as digital use expands

Retail payments in Pakistan grew steadily in the first quarter of the current fiscal year as more people and businesses turned to mobile apps and other digital tools to move money, according to the country’s central bank.

The State Bank of Pakistan said retail payment transactions reached 2.8 billion in the July-September period of FY26, up 10% from the previous quarter. The total value of these payments rose 6% to PKR 166 trillion.

In its quarterly report on payment systems released Tuesday, the central bank said the growth was largely driven by wider use of mobile banking apps, showing deeper digital adoption across the economy.

By volume, retail payments were led by fund transfers, which totaled about 1.45 billion transactions. These were followed by 400 million merchant payments, 353 million bill payments and mobile top-ups, 311 million cash withdrawals through ATMs, bank branches and agents, and 87 million cash deposits.

Fund transfers also dominated by value, reaching PKR 123 trillion, the bank said. Cash withdrawals and cash or instrument deposits followed with a combined value of about PKR 28 trillion. Fund transfers can be made through digital channels such as ATMs, mobile and internet banking, as well as over-the-counter services at bank branches and branchless banking agents.

Digital channels accounted for 2.5 billion transactions, or 90% of all retail payments, up from 87% in the same period last year. The value of payments made through digital channels reached PKR 55 trillion.

Mobile app-based payments made up the largest share of digital activity. About 2.0 billion transactions were carried out through apps offered by banks, branchless banking providers and electronic money institutions. These accounted for 81% of all digital payments and totaled PKR 33.7 trillion in value.

Internet banking also continued to expand, while the number of payment cards in circulation rose to 61.3 million. About 90% of these were debit cards, and around 4% were credit cards, the central bank said.

The Raast instant payment system also showed strong growth. Person-to-person payments through Raast rose 31% to 535 million transactions, worth PKR 11.3 trillion. Payments from people to merchants more than doubled to 4.3 million transactions, valued at PKR 17 billion. In total, Raast processed 544 million transactions amounting to PKR 12.8 trillion during the quarter.

Card-based payments at point-of-sale terminals and online stores continued to rise, with about 1.5 million transactions taking place each day.

Pakistan’s network of 20,527 ATMs handled 267 million transactions worth PKR 4.5 trillion. On average, each ATM processed 142 transactions a day, with an average transaction size of about PKR 16,800.

Despite the rapid growth in digital payments, physical service points remained important. Nearly 19,900 bank branches and more than 756,000 branchless banking agents provided over-the-counter services such as cash deposits, withdrawals, fund transfers and bill payments.

Bank branches processed 137 million transactions worth PKR 110 trillion, while branchless banking agents handled 129 million transactions totaling about PKR 0.9 trillion.

The central bank said these trends point to continued progress toward a more inclusive, efficient and digitally enabled payment system in Pakistan.