Avanza Premier Payment Services (APPS) has partnered with 1LINK to enable PayPak – Pakistan’s first and only domestic payment scheme for e-commerce acceptance through PayFast – APPS’ online payment gateway.
This collaboration will enable PayPak cardholders of participating issuers to perform e-commerce transactions on over 100 APPS’ online merchants via PayFast gateway. Keeping the security paramount, PayPak scheme mandates all e-commerce transactions to be 3D Secure where cardholders are authenticated through an OTP for each transaction.
This will substantially lessen the chances of fraud and increase customer confidence while performing the e-commerce transactions on their PayPak cards. Habib Metropolitan Bank (HMB) will act as a settlement bank for these transactions.
The signing ceremony was held at 1LINK’s head office in Karachi, Pakistan. The Agreement was signed by Mr. Najeeb Agrawalla, CEO 1LINK, Mr. Syed Adnan Ali, CEO APPS, and Mr. Abu Tufail, SEVP HMB, in presence of senior officials of the organizations.
Mr. Najeeb Agrawalla shared his thoughts as, “PayPak – Pakistan’s very own domestic scheme achieves this important milestone of e-commerce acceptance enablement through a partnership with APPS. I would like to appreciate APPS in taking lead to support and enable the domestic scheme for e-commerce acceptance on its gateway.”
“This is one of a many such PayPak e-commerce enablement initiatives and 1LINK is actively engaged to increase the PayPak e-commerce footprint in Pakistan. This enablement will positively impact e-commerce growth in Pakistan as the 4 Mln+ PayPak card base is able to transact on e-commerce platforms,” he added.
Mr. Arshad Raza, CEO, Premier Systems, and Chairman of APPS, stated, “On this momentous occasion, I am rejoiced to see key industry players under one roof with one ambition, to bring forth Pakistan-borne Scheme and Gateway into the limelight. This strategic partnership will propel the growth and acceptability of online payments within the Country.”
Mr. Abu Tufail, SEVP HMB, stated, “We’re proud to see the direction the digital payment landscape of Pakistan is headed towards especially with the induction of Pakistan’s own payment scheme, PayPak being applicable for online payments via APPS, a PSO/PSP whose potential inclined us to support them in their objective of creating a cashless economy, by becoming their settlement bank.”
Mr. Adnan Ali, CEO of APPS, said in a statement, “With this partnership, PayFast will become the first payment gateway to accept PayPak cards for online payments which will further enhance our mutual market penetration. Hence, Partnerships between key players in the Pakistan fintech market are essential in order to help the nation’s population receive the full benefits of modern payment methods.”
