KARACHI: Pakistan saw retail payments surge to Rs166 trillion [$592 billion] during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, a report by the central bank said on Tuesday, registering an increase of six percent compared to the last quarter. 

In its quarterly report on payment systems, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said retail payment volumes rose to 2.8 billion transactions to mark a 10% quarterly growth. It said the value of the payments surged to $592 billion during the same period. 

“This expansion was primarily driven by the continued rise in mobile app-based banking,” the SBP report said. 

The report further said digital payment channels accounted for 2.5 billion transactions, representing 90% of total retail payments compared to 87% in the same quarter last year. 

The central bank said mobile app-based payments dominated the digital landscape, with 2 billion transactions carried out through apps offered by banks, branchless banking (BB) providers and EMIs [electronic money institutions]. 

“These transactions constituted 81% of all digital payments and amounted to PKR 33.7 trillion [$120.3 billion] in value,” the SBP report said.

Internet banking also saw a “steady expansion,” with the report stating that an increasing number of users conducted transactions through digital channels. Payment cards in circulation increased to 61.3 million, the SBP said, of which 90% are debit cards and four percent are credit cards.

The report also said that a network of 20,527 ATMs facilitated 267 million transactions across the country during the quarter that amounted to Rs4.5 trillion [$16.1 billion]. 

“These developments collectively reflect continued progress toward a more inclusive, efficient, and digitally enabled payments ecosystem in Pakistan,” the SBP said.