Business Desk 
Mar 30, 2025
An undated image. — Pexels
In a development signifying substantial adoption of electronic payment methods across Pakistan, digital payments have been recorded to be making up nearly 88% of all retail transactions taking place during the Q1 of FY25.
Citing data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan, ProPakistani reported that the biggest chunk of these online transactions were conducted through mobile app-based banking.
Other major carriers of online payments include mobile banking apps, branchless banking (BB) wallets, and e-money wallets, collectively processing 1,450 million transactions worth Rs24 trillion in early 2025.
Compared to the previous fiscal year quarter, this extent of digitally-conducted money transactions register a 12% increase in volume and a 28% uptick in value, as per SBP data.
The data highlights that the realm of digital payments in Pakistan is undergoing a fast-paced acceptance, as further retail transactions in Q2-FY25 are also reported to be leveraging digital payment channels.
The SBP data showed that the number of people using digital means for retail payments also marked a notable surge during Q1 FY25, as mobile banking app users rose 7% to 21 million, whereas e-money and BB wallet users increased 13% and 7% to 4.7 million and 64.3 million, respectively.
The number of internet banking users also shot up 7% to reach 13.3 million, with merchant payments witnessing remarkable growth as e-commerce transactions rose 30% in volume to 152 million.
