‘Raast’ – SBP launches Pakistan’s first instant payment system

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has launched its first instant payment system, Raast, offering free, fast, and reliable digital person-to-person (P2P) payments service to people of the country.  

The system has been introduced by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) believes that the launch of Raast P2P service will not only provide a convenient and hassle-free digital fund transfer service to customers but will also provide an efficient and enabling payments infrastructure that would pave the way for digitization of the economy and promotion of digital financial services in the country.

Under Raast Person-to-Person (P2P) fund transfers and settlement services, bank customers would be able to send and receive funds in their accounts using their bank’s mobile application, internet banking or over-the-counter services.

“For customers’ facilitation, they can set their registered mobile phone number as their Raast ID and link it to their preferred International Bank Account Number (IBAN) using the bank’s mobile application, internet banking, or visiting their bank branch. Once a customer has set her/his mobile phone number as the Raast ID, others can send money to her/him using her/his mobile phone number without the need to know the account number or any other details,” read the press release.

Bank customers can still use Raast service for sending or receiving funds using their IBANs even if they do not have a Raast ID or prefer to use their IBAN.

SBP has directed all banks to make Raast Person-to-Person fund transfer service available on at least three customer channels including mobile application, internet banking and branch counters.

The central bank has directed banks to ensure that funds successfully transferred through Raast should be credited into the recipients’ accounts within 20 seconds of receiving the credit advice from Raast system. In order to promote the use of digital financial services in the country, banks have been advised not to levy any charges on Raast related services and all transactions conducted through Raast would be free for end customers.