National Bank of Pakistan has received formal approval from the State Bank of Pakistan for the commercial launch of Raast Person-to-Merchant Acquiring, marking a significant milestone in the bank’s digital payments journey and contributing to Pakistan’s broader push toward a cashless economy. The approval was confirmed during a meeting between representatives from National Bank of Pakistan’s Digital Banking Group and the State Bank of Pakistan’s Digital Innovations and Settlement Department, with senior officials from both institutions in attendance including Muhammad Imaduddin, Director of the Digital Innovations and Settlement Department at the State Bank of Pakistan, Muhammad Hassan Memon, Assistant Director at the same department, Adnan Nasir, Chief Digital Officer and Senior Executive Vice President of the Digital Banking Group at National Bank of Pakistan, and Zohaib Ali Khan, Divisional Head of Acquiring and Payments at National Bank of Pakistan.
The approval carries immediate practical significance. Beyond clearing the path for full commercial operations, it authorises National Bank of Pakistan to actively promote Raast Person-to-Merchant acquiring among merchants, customers, institutions, and government entities through structured awareness and media campaigns. This expands the bank’s ability to engage the market directly and build the merchant adoption rates that have remained a persistent challenge for Pakistan’s digital payments ecosystem despite the broader Raast infrastructure having been in place for several years. The milestone also reflects the continued guidance and support of the State Bank of Pakistan and Raast Payments Pakistan in enabling National Bank of Pakistan to advance its digital acquiring agenda within the regulatory framework.
National Bank of Pakistan stated its commitment to expanding digital payment acceptance nationwide, with a particular focus on underserved segments, small merchants, and institutional payment ecosystems that have historically remained outside the formal digital payments network. The bank intends to work closely with regulators, internal business teams, fintech partners, and merchant communities to accelerate adoption of digital payments, positioning the Raast Person-to-Merchant approval as a foundational step in a longer-term strategy to bring a greater share of Pakistan’s estimated three to four million merchants into the cashless payment infrastructure that Raast was designed to support at national scale.
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