Web Desk — The State Bank of Pakistan has introduced Raast – Pakistan\u2019s first instant payment system that will enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state-of-the-art Pakistan\u2019s Faster Payment System will be used to settle small-value retail payments in real-time while at the same time providing a cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry including commercial banks, microfinance banks, government entities, and fintechs (EMIs & PSPs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) of Pakistan provides instant payment settlements for large value and corporate transactions only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raast: Pakistan\u2019s Instant Payment System will facilitate retail payment settlements with great efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raast aims to address some key industry challenges within the payment ecosystem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Limited interoperability: Financial institutions (i.e. the providers of digital payment services) have difficulty connecting to each other due to a lack of necessary central infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
High cost of digital payments to the end-user: End users are charged high fees for transferring money digitally, making digital payments inaccessible for a large portion of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poor user experience: End-users must go through a complex process to make digital payments and there are no digital modes of payment that are widely accepted by merchants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lack of security: Currently available digital payment types and infrastructure do not offer sufficient\/adequate data protection and authentication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Features of Raast:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instantaneous payments: Near real-time digital payments across individuals, merchants, businesses, and government entities<\/p>\n\n\n\n Low-to-no transaction costs for end-users: Raast is designed to operate at a cost-recovery model in order to make digital payments affordable to end-users of all socio-economic backgrounds<\/p>\n\n\n\n Full sector-wide interoperability: Raast will allow all financial institutions to seamlessly connect to each other via a single link to the central infrastructure, making digital payments accessible across any channel to customers of any financial institution<\/p>\n\n\n\n Customer-centric innovative products\/services: Raast will be built on cutting-edge technological standards, allowing financial institutions to develop innovative and user-friendly digital payment products and services (e.g. payment through phone number as RAAST ID).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reliability and enhanced security: RAAST uses more secure payment types, ensures that each transaction is authorized by the payer, and offers enhanced data protection and fraud detection services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Web Desk — The State Bank of Pakistan has introduced Raast – Pakistan\u2019s 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\u2019s Faster Payment System will be used to settle small-value retail payments in real-time while at the same time providing a cheap and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n