Over ninety-four percent of banks’ branches in Pakistan are now offering Real-Time Online Branches (RTOB) services, said a quarterly Payment System review published by State Bank of Pakistan.
Overall 9,946 branches of banks out of 10,535 now offer RTOB services across the country. The volume of overall e-banking transactions in the country also increased by 3.47 percent amounting to 82.21 million transactions and value of e-banking transactions registered a growth of 4.37 percent reaching Rs. 7.9 trillion during the third quarter of the current fiscal year, the Review added.
The Payment Systems infrastructure in the country maintained an increasing growth trend during the third quarter of FY13 and 217 more Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were installed by various banks bringing the total number of ATMs in the country to 6,449.
The Review said that the number of plastic cards in the country also witnessed an increase of 5.06 percent in the third quarter reaching 21.77 million.
In comparison with other cards, debit cards have shown the highest percentage growth of about 5.41 percent which has raised the total number of debit cards so far issued to 19.57 million. Moreover, debit cards have the highest share in the total number of plastic cards issued in the country which is 89.94 percent in the current quarter of FY 13. Transactions through debit cards have also increased both in volume and value as compared to the previous quarter which is 6.2 percent and 8.82 percent respectively, the Review added.
