Pakistan’s Digital Leap: Unpacking the Surging Adoption of Financial Technologies
Summary: Despite user experience challenges, digitalisation Pakistan’s financial services sector is witnessing an undeniable surge. With over 123 million registered digital users and mobile banking processing Rs83.2 trillion in FY25, the uptake is exponential. While e-commerce lags, overall retail transaction digitisation has reached a record 21.7% of throughput, showcasing significant momentum.
Digitalisation Pakistan: A Paradox of Perception and Progress
Digitalisation Pakistan’s financial services industry frequently faces criticism regarding customer satisfaction with digital products and user experience. Issues like onboarding complexity, dispute resolution, and overall seamlessness are often cited. Yet, a closer examination of payment reports reveals a different story: a remarkable and sustained uptake in digital financial services, defying anecdotal dissatisfaction. Almost every data point indicates a high growth trajectory, an extent often underestimated by the public.
Explosive Growth in Digital Adoption
As of FY25, Pakistan has amassed over 123 million registered digital platform users, encompassing mobile, internet, branchless banking, and other digital wallets. This represents more than half of all registered deposit-taking accounts nationwide, an impressive achievement given Pakistan’s historical low ranking in digital penetration. The usage figures are even more striking. Mobile banking, for instance, processed a throughput of Rs83.2 trillion in FY25, an 80 percent increase over the previous year. SindhNews.com reports that it handled 1.8 billion transactions, surpassing ATMs, internet banking, point-of-sale, and e-commerce combined.
Branchless wallets lead in transaction volume, recording 4.2 billion transactions, albeit with a smaller value of Rs14.2 trillion. Overall, 21.7 percent of all retail transactions processed through scheduled banks in FY25 were digital, marking a record 8.21 percentage point increase from the prior year.
Diverse Channels, Upward Trends
While growth rates vary, the trend across digital channels is unambiguously positive. Internet banking throughput surged by 62 percent to Rs38.1 trillion, with volumes rising 24 percent to 276.5 million. Point-of-sale (POS), one of the country’s oldest digital channels, experienced significant growth, crossing the Rs2 trillion benchmark to reach Rs2.1 trillion in FY25, up 37 percent year-on-year. Volumes increased by 39 percent to 377.7 million. Infrastructure also expanded, with 59.3 million payment cards and 195,849 terminals across 159,284 merchants.
E-commerce and Future Challenges in Digitalisation Pakistan
E-commerce remains an area requiring further development. Card-based e-commerce transactions reached 51.8 million in FY25, a 30 percent increase, generating Rs249.7 billion in throughput. However, given Pakistan’s largely account-based payment mix, branchless wallets processed a more substantial 683.9 million online merchant transactions worth Rs662.7 billion during the same period. This highlights the need for a broader understanding of online transactions beyond just cards.
Experts from Data Darbar provide critical context, noting that “high growth” must be benchmarked against past performance and peer markets. They report that nearly 60.8 percent of retail scheduled banking transaction volumes were digital in FY25. Crucially, the share of digital throughput reached 21.7 percent, demonstrating a significant shift. The next challenge for digitalisation Pakistan is to capitalize on this momentum, particularly by focusing sustained efforts on business-to-business (B2B) payments, involving not just the central bank but also tax authorities.
Conclusion
Despite a prevailing perception of user dissatisfaction, the quantitative data unequivocally demonstrates a robust and accelerating adoption of digital financial services across Pakistan. The exponential growth in digital platform users, transaction volumes, and overall retail digitisation percentage underscores a profound transformation in how Pakistanis engage with financial services. The challenge ahead lies in addressing the nuances of e-commerce and extending this digital leap into the business sector.