KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday asked
all banks to expedite adopting PayPak cards in order to ensure the
safety and security of payment instruments and consumers’ money.
After
the recent Habib Bank ATM scam which resulted into loss of Rs10.2
million and a sense of insecurity emerged among debit card holders in
general, SBP came out with this suggestion to prevent loopholes in the
banking system that may lead to such frauds.
While
highlighting SBP’s full support for PayPak card adoption by all banks,
Deputy Governor State Bank, Mr Jameel Ahmad, encouraged the banks to
devise strategies for increasing their uptake of PayPak cards.
He
was addressing senior banking and financial executives at the ‘PayPak –
The Way Forward’ – an event held at SBP head office in Karachi.
The
deputy governor advised banks to step up their efforts for
rationalising the cost of digital transactions by reviewing Merchant
Discount Rate, increasing access points, and ensuring the safety and
security of payment instruments to safeguard consumers’ money. He
stressed the need for adoption of domestic payment scheme - PayPak card -
by banks in order to provide a cost effective, ubiquitous and digital
payment instrument to consumers.
The deputy governor in
his speech highlighted the prevailing use of cash and financial
exclusion in the country that reduces the overall economic efficiency
and hampers the development of financial sector to its actual potential.
Citing key infrastructural gaps in electronic payments
methods, Mr Ahmad highlighted that SBP’s key objective is to build a
modern and robust payment system in the country that enables provision
of cost effective and easily available Digital Financial Services (DFS)
to the general public.
The deputy governor further
talked about the importance of domestic payment schemes in the
development of key payment infrastructure by incentivising both the
consumers and merchants while providing inter-operability.
Syed
Irfan Ali, executive director SBP, also talked about the importance of
collaboration and partnerships of banks with non-bank methods such as
Fintechs to provide efficient and affordable payment solutions to
consumers.
He advised all banks to comply with SBP’s
guidelines of EMV (Europay, MaterCard and Visa) compliance for payment
card security by the stipulated timelines, as no exemption or relaxation
will be allowed to any bank beyond June 30, 2018.
