Digital payments reach 92pc of Pakistan's retail transactions, SBP says
Digital channels accounted for 92 per cent of retail payments in Pakistan in fiscal year 2025-26, up from 88 per cent a year earlier, according to the State Bank of Pakistan's Annual Report on Payment Systems. The SBP reported that retail payments through formal banking channels rose to 14.3 billion transactions worth Rs673 trillion during the year, with volume up 58 per cent year-on-year and value up 10 per cent. Digital payments made up 13.2 billion of those transactions, a 65 per cent annual increase, the report said.
Mobile-based payment solutions remained the leading digital channel, processing more than 11.1 billion transactions, up 79 per cent from FY25. Internet banking platforms handled around 300 million transactions, growth of 15 per cent over the previous fiscal year, according to the report. On the user side, the SBP put branchless banking mobile app users at 99.1 million and bank mobile app users at 30.4 million.
Payment infrastructure also expanded. The report said the number of point-of-sale terminals rose to 337,791 across 295,367 merchant locations, processing close to 1.5 million card payments a day, against about one million daily transactions in FY25. Account-based online payments accounted for 96 per cent of e-commerce transactions processed through banking channels.
The SBP flagged the launch of PRISM+ in August 2025 as a key development of the year, moving Pakistan's real-time gross settlement system to the ISO 20022 standard. The upgraded platform is intended to improve the efficiency, transparency and security of processing for both retail and large-value transactions. With PRISM+ operational, the report said, Pakistan joins the group of countries where wholesale payment systems and retail instant payment infrastructure both rest on the ISO 20022 standard.
The central bank said it would continue work to develop secure, efficient and inclusive payment systems and to strengthen the country's financial infrastructure in line with technological change and international standards.
