The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, convened today to discuss a range of critical financial issues.
Officials from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) informed the committee that, as of March 2025, there are 53 million cardholders in the country. Of these, around 10 million use PayPak, Pakistan’s domestic payment card, while 12.5 million hold Visa cards.
Senator Mandviwalla noted that most customers across the country rely on MasterCard and Visa. He remarked, “Banks earn profits from these cards. We should require banks to encourage customers to adopt PayPak.”
The committee also discussed the matter of annual fees applied to Visa and MasterCard transactions in U.S. dollars.
Several members raised concerns about why banks had favored Visa and MasterCard over providing customers with local card alternatives. One member remarked that banks themselves are preventing customers from using local cards.
Committee members also proposed that account holders be given the option to choose local cards to promote the use of domestic payment systems.
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