KARACHI: The users of State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) instant digital payment system Raast crossed 25.8 million during the second quarter of the financial year 2023 while transaction value has reached 578.6 billion rupees depicting a significant growth of 488 per cent.
It was stated in the SBP’s first and second quarterly reports released on Tuesday. The report, covering July-December 2022, showed major highlights of the payment ecosystem in Pakistan and a detailed analysis of transactions processed through the infrastructure of the payments.
According to the report, the initiative for providing an instant cost-efficient person-to-person digital payment system has witnessed better growth as the number of Raast users surged from 15.0 million as of the end of Q4-FY22 to 21.1 million by the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year, and 25.8 million by Q2-FY23 reflecting a growth of 72.1 per cent since Jun 2022.
Raast transactions
The number of transactions processed through Raast surged from 7.1 million to 21.5 million showing a growth of 202.1 per cent, while transactions’ value went up from 98.4 billion rupees to 578.6 billion rupees showing a remarkable growth of 488.1 per cent since Q4-FY22.
During quarter 1 of the current fiscal year, total e-banking transactions witnessed a growth of 4.1 per cent in volume while value declined by 5.0 per cent, the report said.
It added that, however, in quarter Q2-FY23, e-banking showed 12.6 per cent growth in volume and 6.5 per cent increase in value of transactions reaching 515 million and 42.5 trillion rupees respectively.
