Telenor Microfinance Bank, in partnership with Valyou of Malaysia, has introduced Pakistan’s first blockchain-based cross-border remittance service, powered by industry-leading blockchain technology developed by Alipay, the online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group (“Ant Financial”).
The blockchain remittance service is provided by Telenor’s Easypaisa and Valyou, a financial technology company that provides remittances to underbanked communities. The plan was unveiled at an event in Islamabad attended by State Bank of Pakistan Governor Tariq Bajwa, marking a major milestone in the country’s journey to promote financial inclusion.
The blockchain technology will significantly boost the speed and efficiency of remittances from Malaysia to Pakistan. It will also ensure the money transfers are highly secure and transparent, as all information stored, shared, or uploaded through the blockchain remittance platform will be encrypted with advanced protocols in order to protect users’ privacy.
It’s important to mention that SBP and Ant Financial are deliberately starting slowly in a sandbox mode for the project. Depending on results and feedback, more countries will be added. To promote remittances through the new service, 2 minutes of free air time per dollar will be given to users for the remitted amount.
Governor State Bank of Pakistan Mr. Tariq Bajwa, while congratulating Ant Financial, Telenor Microfinance Bank, Valyou Malaysia and Standard Chartered Bank for this new initiative and collaboration to promote the use of formal remittance channels, said:
At around USD 20 billion per year, international remittances are important from the perspective of overall macroeconomic stability and their positive spillover in improving lives of millions of families. Home remittances contributed to over 6% in GDP, equivalent to over 50% of our trade deficit, 85% of exports and over one-third of imports during FY 2017-18.
He also said that the Government of Pakistan and State Bank of Pakistan have taken a number of initiatives to promote the transfer of home remittances using formal financial channels and the new block-chain technology based remittance service would complement these efforts as transfer of cross-border remittances in near real time would bring convenience and facilitation for both remitters and their beneficiaries.
“This puts Pakistan on the map of very few countries in the world that have launched International Remittance using block-chain technology”, he added.
Mr. Tariq Bajwa also stated that he expects that the financial sector will take advantage of the current favorable market environment by investing in innovative technologies and product offerings to expand services and broaden access to financial services in the country.
The blockchain-powered remittance service will make round-the-clock, real-time money transfers between the two countries possible at a competitive exchange rate, with Alipay’stransaction fees waived during the one-year trial period.
Eric Jing, Chairman, and CEO of Ant Financial, said:
The new remittance service is one of the examples of how emerging technologies can help countries meet their digital and financial inclusion goals. We’re thrilled to be part of Pakistan’s financial inclusion efforts and we’re dedicated to exploring breakthroughs and applying them to benefit more people in more places.
I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to State Bank of Pakistan for all the great support to make this project possible. I congratulate both Easypaisa and Valyou on this major development that will facilitate the people in both countries, putting Pakistan on the map of fintech innovation and promoting financial inclusion.
By eliminating intermediary costs, the new remittance service reduces the transactional cost for end-users, while the blockchain technology enables both senders and receivers to track their money every step of the way, significantly boosting the service’s efficiency and safety.
Roar Bjærum, Senior Vice President, Head of Financial Services, Telenor Group & Chairman Valyou, said:
The transparency and swiftness this innovative and first-of-its-kind service brings to Pakistani users of international remittance will redefine international money transfer in the country. Currently, Pakistan receives about USD 1 billion in home remittances from Malaysia and this Easypaisa-Valyou collaboration is going to change it for the better. The service is the result of the close partnership between Telenor Group and Ant Financial Services and epitomizes our shared vision to empower societies by bringing inclusive financial services to the world.
The service aims to promote and encourage the use of formal channels for remittances, with all existing incentives offered by State Bank of Pakistan for the promotion of international remittance through mobile wallet being applicable for this service.
Shahid Mustafa, President & CEO, Telenor Microfinance Bank, said:
The international remittance service epitomizes the shared vision of Telenor Group and Ant Financial to empower societies by bringing inclusive financial services to the world. It is a bold statement of the wonders new technologies can do to transform the financial services landscape in Pakistan which remains a top priority on the country’s national agenda.
Pakistan is in the process of strengthening its financial system, with the Pakistani government recently enhancing its National Financial Inclusion Strategy through a five-year plan that aims to create three million jobs and additional exports of USD $5.5 billion by improving SMEs’ access to financing.
author can’t decide whether to spell blockchain as one word or as a compound word with a hyphen :)
Hey shaytaan. Pls take my relatives with you to jahanum. Thanks.
yarrr, EPIC ;)
You made my day :)
If you want your people to suffer send them to heaven. They’ll have to pray 5 times a day and kiss mullah’s backsides.
So Cheap thinking…shameful.
well it’s better than the cheap living pakistanis who steal left and right while praising their god.
speaking from experience. nice.
Yeah man everytime you go to sajda you’re face is inches away from another guy’s bum!
i haven’t looked into it with detail, but it might be leveraging Distributed Ledger tech in some other way rather than being strictly blockchain.
regardless, can you elaborate why this isn’t a blockchain ?
how can i when no details are provided? all i know is that private blockchains, in general, are very different from the bitcoin blockchain. for one there is no proof of work to secure it. but that is because it isn’t required when access to the system is restricted. which brings us to the second difference which is that they aren’t decentralized. but really here we have no details and that’s the sad part about all this. it’s all marketing fluff. the latest spin is that Pakistan is adopting blockchain as if we in Pakistan created this system. it’s a chinese company that’s deploying it. we in pakistan hate new technologies and banned bitcoin! we have a history of doing this. in the past we’ve banned blogs, video sharing and DTH.
” how can i when no details are provided? ”
you specifically mentioned Hash tree, giving off the impression that you might have known some details. that’s why i asked you.
moving on, proof of work shouldn’t be the only consensus algorithm for a blockchain service to qualify as truly blockchain. that’s why we have Proof of Stake, DPOS and so on..
I think the term Decentralization, in private blockchains, has a meaning more leaning towards high-availability and no single point of failure. rather than a democratic right of access, like what we have in Bitcoin.
Yeah, it is moronic to think that this inception of the Alipay service equates to Blockchain adoption in Pakistan. Blockchain has a long way to go in Pakistan.
Anything that’s good in the rest of the world is mostly banned in Pakistan.
When will alipay launch in Pakistan they said this year but when?
if they launch they devalue their purchase of easypaisa. so i’m thinking easypaisa is all we’ll ever get.
Good to hear