Retail Payment Systems
In the OIC Member Countries
77
PRISM has two components for cash and securities. The payment component of PRISM settles
payments resulting from the interbank money market, securities market transactions, foreign
exchange transactions and net settlement positions of cheque clearing. The second component
of PRISM is a securities settlement system for government securities transactions resulting
from the sale or purchase of Market Treasury Bills (MTB) and Pakistan Investment Bonds
(PIB) in the primary and the secondary market. The Payment Systems Department also
performs other payments tasks while facilitating PRISM system operations, including
multilateral net settlement batches (MNSB).
In 2014, PRISM settled more than 600,000 transactions and Rs. 149 trillion of value, exhibiting
a growth of more than three times in volume and twice in terms of value compared to 2009.
Among the total transactions processed through PRISM, 50.3% (Rs. 75 trillion) are composed
of government securities, 41.2% (Rs. 61.5 trillion) pertains to interbank money transfers,
while settlement of paper based instruments through National Institutional Facilitation
Technologies (NIFT) is 8.5% (Rs. 12.7 trillion).23
Retail Payment Systems
The retail payment system in Pakistan consists of relatively low value consumer payments
made through bank branches (for paper-based instruments such as cheques, pay orders,
money drafts, etc.) and/or electronic channels (i.e. ATMs, point-of-sale, internet banking,
mobile phone banking and call centres/IVR or real time online banking).
As of 2014, 10,601 of 11,153 bank branches provide real-time online services (RTOB), which
comprise about 89.2% value and 23.9% volume of total e-banking transactions. Pakistan has
also recently added 393 ATM machines, bringing the total number to 8,077 machines
nationwide. ATMs transactions comprise about 8.1% value and 63.8% volume, which
dominated by cash withdrawals (96.0% in volume and 81.2% in value).
Electronic Banking
The Electronic Transactions Ordinance came into force in 2002 and provided the legal
structure for payments through electronic transactions and brought potential change to
payment methods. Following that, the Payment System and Electronic Funds Transfer Act,
2007 was implemented to regulate the modern mode of payment. The State Bank of Pakistan
plays a key role to supervise and control advanced payment transactions within and across
borders. However, electronic banking in Pakistan is still minimal.
23 State Bank of Pakistan regularly published their reports and statements. A more detailed numbers and explanation can be
obtained from