January 11, 2021 (MLN): Prime Minister Imran Khan will be launching Raast by State Bank of Pakistan, i.e. Pakistan’s Instant Payment System, today in Islamabad.
The launch ceremony will begin at 4.30 pm PST and will be broadcasted live on Facebook, SBP said via its official Twitter handle.
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.
