Branchless banking growing

KARACHI: Branchless banking in the country grew by 14 per cent during the first quarter of 2013 (January – March), and by the end of the quarter, branchless banking accounts reached 2.4 million. According to SBP’s latest newsletter on branchless banking issued on Wednesday, branchless banking deposits have grown by 32 per cent and reached Rs1.4 billion. The total volume and value of transactions processed during the quarter jumped by 16pc to 41.1 million and by 13pc to Rs171bn, respectively. This growth in transactions is largely attributable to early branchless banking players (Easypaisa and Omni). The average size of transaction is Rs4,150 while the average number of daily transactions has increased to 457,000 from 392,433. The fast growing network of branchless banking agents has reached 64,716 as on March 31, 2013 from 41,567 on Dec 31, 2012, registering an increase of 56 per cent. This growth in agents’ network is largely owed to new players (Mobicash and Timepey). According to the newsletter, domestic fund transfers through OTC (P2P) remains the dominant category with 59pc share in value and 36pc in number of transactions performed by the customers. Growth in m-wallets has been driven by government to people accounts as 75pc of the total 295,138 accounts registered during the quarter belong to Government to people beneficiaries. Government to people welfare payments worth Rs5.5bn were disbursed. Moreover, Rs346m have been disbursed to EOBI pensioners through agents.