Business Desk 
Aug 18, 2025
As Pakistan is making remarkable strides towards the advancement of the conventional ways of payments, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) seems to have moved in the same direction by announcing the launch of its upgraded payment and settlement system, PRISM+.
Scheduled for tomorrow, the introductio of PRISM+ signifies a crucial advancement in the evolution of Pakistan’s financial infrastructure.
According to ProPakistani, PRISM+ will modernise the movement of money and government securities across Pakistan’s financial system, as it is built on the globally recognised ISO 20022 messaging standard, which is commonly utilised in advanced financial systems worldwide.
The new system features two main components: a faster Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system for large payments and a newly established Central Securities Depository (CSD) for managing government securities such as T-Bills and PIBs.
PRISM+ enhances banking operations with various new tools, including real-time large payment transfers, scheduling options for future payments, priority-based processing for important transactions, and live dashboards for monitoring balances and settlement statuses.
Additionally, the CSD enables banks to efficiently handle government bonds, participate in primary market auctions, and engage in secondary market trading with swift matching and settlement.
SBP's advanced payment system would also facilitate open market operations, allowing the central bank to manage liquidity in the market effectively.
To ensure that every transaction leaves a complete audit trail and only authorised users can perform actions, PRISM+ brings improved transparency and security.
