Meezan Bank will launch Pakistan’s first Islamic e-commerce payment gateway and point-of-sale (PoS) system this year, as the bank aims at providing a Sharia-based digital transaction system and solution to merchants and customers countrywide.
The bank is working to set up online payment solutions to e-commerce stores and installations of PoS terminals mainly at shopping centers, restaurants, and other retailers of goods and services to provide its customers with a Sharia-compliant cashless payment option through debit and credit cards.
The bank is all set to launch its merchant acquiring initiatives and e-commerce payment gateway to rapidly grow digital payments in Pakistan and fulfill the needs of a vast majority of retailers and online businesses who have been looking for a Sharia-compliant solution, said the quarterly report of Meezan Bank.
The use of payment cards has been on the rise in Pakistan for the past few years, as the customers prefer to use the cashless payment option due to prevention against the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), there are more than 3,000 e-commerce merchants registered with various banks, whereas the number of PoS machines stood at 72,000 across the country by the end of the outgoing financial year.
The transaction through e-commerce surged to Rs. 60 billion and PoS-processed transactions valued at over Rs. 453 billion in the financial year 2020-21.
Some of the e-commerce and PoS operators in Pakistan are Habib Bank Limited, United Bank Limited, MCB Bank, Easypaisa, JazzCash, Keenue, Fonepay, Payoneer, Payfast, NIFTepay.
With the increasing trend of digital payment solutions, the launch of Sharia-compliant alternates will prove to be a catalyst to the digitization of the payment system in the country as faith-conscious traders running various e-commerce and retail stores will like to adopt the alternate modes of the conventional banking system.
Merchants could deposit their money directly in Islamic banks through the launch of e-commerce and POS system.
Source: Pro Pakistani