PM launches second phase of Raast instant payment system

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran khan on Tuesday launched the second phase of Raast, a person-to-person (P2P) instant payment system, a statement said on Tuesday.

Raast, a flagship initiative of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is a payment system platform that enables various types of transactions among different stakeholders such as organisations, businesses and persons.

The Prime Minister congratulated Governor SBP Dr Reza Baqir and his team for the successful completion of the second phase.

He appreciated that the newly launched system will enable ordinary people to execute digital payments instantly, securely, and conveniently without paying any fee and added that Raast will open doors of further innovation for the economy and particularly the financial sector.

He expressed his confidence that through digitisation of the economy, the over 220 million population could be converted into an asset by ensuring their financial inclusion.

Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin appreciated the SBP for the progress made in digitisation and expressed his confidence that the forthcoming phases of Raast including payment to merchants will play an important role in facilitating the masses in their financial transaction thus increasing their valuable contribution in the economy.

Governor SBP Dr Reza Baqir welcomed the Prime Minister at the launch event and expressed gratitude for his commitment and support to the SBP initiatives for promoting digitisation and financial inclusion in the economy.

Baqir, while highlighting the key features of Raast, explained that individuals can use this platform in their transactions just like cash and they will not have to pay any fees or charges for using this payment system.

Raast is secure and convenient and free of risks compared to cash, he said, adding that Raast is easy and simple to use as it allows connecting a bank account to the user’s mobile number, called Raast ID.

The facility can be used on mobile apps and internet banking portals of banks. For those people who do not have a mobile phone or facility of internet banking, Raast P2P service is also available in bank branches.

The objective of this initiative is to promote digitisation and financial inclusion in the country.

In the first phase of Raast, launched in January 2021, transactions from organisations to persons, generally referred to as bulk payments, were enabled. The second phase is designed to facilitate P2P transactions under Raast.

Raast is Pakistan’s first instant payment system established in accordance with the National Payment Systems Strategy, which was prepared by the SBP and launched by the World Bank president in 2019 when he visited Pakistan.

This project is a major initiative of the central bank, and with the launch of Raast, Pakistan is now in an exclusive list of countries who have these state of the art instant payment systems, Baqir said.

He said that in January, the SBP issued a digital bank licensing framework that provides flexible requirements to set up digital banks in Pakistan. For now, only five licenses for Digital Banks will be issued and interested parties can apply for a licence until March 31, 2022.

It may be noted that during fiscal year 2021, 1.2 billion transactions of $500 billion value were processed through retail e-banking channels. These transactions showed year-on-year growth of 30.6 per cent in volume and 31.1 per cent in value.