PM launches Pakistan's first instant digital payment system 'Raast'
Last updated on: 11 January,2021 09:57 pm
Digital payments only account for 0.2% of Pakistan's ~100 billion transactions.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched the country’s first instant Digital Payment System ’Raast’ on Monday.
Raast is part of Prime Minister Imran Khan Digital Pakistan vision to include poor segments of the society in formal economy.
It will also enable secure, efficient and transparent financial transactions.
Raast: Pakistan’s Instant Payment System
According to website of State Bank of Pakistan, Raast is Pakistan’s first instant payment system that will enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously. The state-of-the-art Pakistan’s Faster Payment System will be used to settle small-value retail payments in real time while at the same time provide a cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry including banks and fintechs.
Pakistan has had low electronic transactions for a number of reasons including low banking penetration, lack of trust and awareness of digital payment methods, limited interoperability, difficult accessibility and high cost of transactions. The Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) of Pakistan provides instant payment settlements for large value and corporate transactions only. Raast: Pakistan’s Instant Payment System will facilitate retail payment settlements with much great efficiency.
Digital payments only account for 0.2% of Pakistan’s ~100 billion transactions today, whereas the share of digital transactions in peer countries ranges from 1.5% to 7%. This can be primarily be attributed to the challenges within the payment ecosystem.
Features of Raast
Instantaneous payments: Near real-time digital payments across individuals, merchants, businesses, and government entities
Low-to-no transaction costs for end users: Raast is designed to operate at a cost recovery model in order to make digital payments affordable to end users of all socio-economic backgrounds
Full sector-wide interoperability: Raast will allow all financial institutions to seamlessly connect to each other via a single link to the central infrastructure, making digital payments accessible across any channel to customers of any financial institution
Customer-centric innovative products/services: Raast will be built on cutting-edge technological standards, allowing financial institutions to develop innovative and user-friendly digital payment products and services (e.g. payment through phone number/email).
Reliability and enhanced security: Raast will introduce more secure payment types, ensure that each transaction is authorized by the payer, and offer enhanced data protection and fraud detection services.