This solution will entail frictionless merchant onboarding and payment experience for customers of Allied Bank and other domestic and international financial institution from thousands of merchant locations across Pakistan.
BPC, a payments solution provider will support Allied Bank from onboarding businesses to enabling a wide range of payment acceptance services, ensuring customers can pay businesses the way they want to in a fast and secure way.
Payments can be made with a QR code, direct account transfer, a wallet debit, an EMV or contactless card Visa, Mastercard, Union Pay International, PayPak debit/credit cards or a tap from an NFC device, all using security and transactions monitoring. BPC will also enable Payment Scheme gateway services for Mastercard, UnionPay, and Visa, connecting Allied Bank to these payment networks for merchant payment processing.
The agreement between Allied Bank and BPC includes the adoption of BPC’s SmartVista platform and a series of micro-services for omnichannel merchant onboarding and management, merchant portal and apps, POS and QR acquiring, merchant fraud, and risk prevention.
With rapid growth in the adoption of digital payment instruments such as cards, wallets, and QR codes, payment acceptance is becoming a priority for businesses and merchants as it is convenient and improves customer experience and retention. Businesses require ease, access, affordability, transparency, and convenience of being able to accept payments digitally.
The agreement underlines the market demand for better and more secure payment services for businesses across Pakistan. The nation's small and medium-sized businesses (SME) and merchant sector represents the backbone of the economy, with more than 5 million businesses across the region. SMEs contribute 40% of Pakistan’s total GDP and 25% in overall exports and are also the driving force behind a more inclusive and digital economy.
Nearly eight in ten merchants (79%) of small businesses in Pakistan surveyed in a Visa study believe digital payments is an important investment in their business recovery. Two in three small businesses (63%) surveyed were optimistic about business recovery in 2021.
In 2015, the Government of Pakistan announced it moves toward a more digital financial economy by joining the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance. This paved the way to financial inclusion for millions of its citizens and inclusive growth for its economy.
In 2021, Pakistan launched a government-run instant payments system as it looked to accelerate digitalisation and boost financial resilience. The scheme has its origins in Pakistan’s national payments strategy, which was unveiled in November 2019. The strategy highlighted the cash-dominated nature of the country’s economy, noting that most salaries are paid with cash and that cheques remain widely used to make government and commercial payments.
In 2022, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced the integration of Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) with Raast payment system. Through this integration with Raast, customers of CDNS can receive their payments directly into their bank accounts without going to branches. CDNS is the first government entity on-boarded on Raast that will extend SBP’s efforts to digitise payments in Pakistan.
To find out more about BPC, check their profile in our company database.
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