SBP approves new electronic money institution and payment system operator

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has granted approval to Toko Lab and Accept Technologies (PayMob) for establishing as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and Payment System Operator (PSO)/Payment Service Provider (PSP), respectively.

The EMI and PSO/PSP will now develop their infrastructure and readiness within 6 months for applying to SBP for permission to initiate pilot operations.

SBP has also granted approval to HubPay for initiating pilot operations as an EMI after assessing its readiness to initiate pilot operations.

Now, four EMIs namely NayaPay, SadaPay and Akhtar Fuiou Technologies are in commercial operations, three EMIs namely Wemsol, E-Processing System and HubPay are in pilot operations, whereas YAP, Cerisma, and Toko Lab have in-principle approval for establishing their readiness for pilot operations.

As of September 30, 2024, EMIs have opened 4.2 million wallets, issued 4.6 million payment cards and have outstanding E-money deposits of PKR 5.7 billion.

The e-money wallets have increased 76.5%, cards issuance by 41.4% and e-money deposits by 87.5% as compared to last year.

Further, during the first 3 quarters i.e. Jan to Sep of 2024, a total of 82.1 million payments were made through e-wallets offered by EMIs amounting to PKR 231.9 billion, showing a significant growth of 117% and 163% respectively as compared to the corresponding period in last year.