January 11, 2019: The development/adoption of broader National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) is expected to enhance formal financial access to 50 per cent of adult population by 2020 in the country from level of 23 per cent measured three years ago.
Various initiatives for implementation of electronic payment channels in the country have been taken which resulted in financial deepening of the economy.
The overall goal is to achieve objectives of universal financial access.
PTA's annual report has revealed that during 2018, regulators and key players in the Digital Financial Service (DFS) market have taken number of initiatives to enhance pace of DFS growth in the country.
The report said realizing critical role of Information Technology in banking industry, the financial and telecom regulators have been pushing financial and telecom industries to upgrade and transform their systems for digital age.
Various initiatives for the implementation of electronic payment channels in the country have been taken that included development of strong legal and regulatory framework such as SBP's branchless banking regulations 2008 (upgraded in 2011 & 2016) PTA/SBP Joint regulations for technical implementation of mobile banking, robust payment systems infrastructure, Real Time Gross Settlement
(RTGS) system, fully inter-operable ATM switches, availability of fast broadband through PTA's spectrum auctions in 2014, 2016 and 2017, mobile and branchless banking services in collaboration with banks and mobile operators.
These are opening up new areas of possibilities in Business to Business (B2B), Business to Customer (B2C), Government to Person (G2P) and Person to Government (P2G) payments.
This has resulted in financial deepening of the economy.
Besides, enabling the payment infrastructure, the government is striving to promote access to and usage of formal financial services for achieving inclusiveness which was a prerequisite for wider distribution of the economic growth across all regions and segments of the population.
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