State Bank of Pakistan Signed MoU to bring digitization in federal government payments

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday signed MoU with the Controller General of Accounts Pakistan (CGAP) to bring digitization in federal government payments. Through the Pakistan’s first instant payment system of Raast launched by State Bank of Pakistan in January 2021.

According to the central bank, SBP’s flagship initiative provides an easy, fast, low-cost, interconnected and secure electronic payment platform for quick processing of high-volume retail payments.

The country’s first instant payment system is also capable of making payments to multiple beneficiaries at a time. To meet the high levels of government payments such as salaries, pensions and social security payments. In the initial phase, salaries and pensions will be paid through a group of federal government employees.

According to the details, the payroll and pension roll data will be distributed from the CGA system to the SBP’s Raast system through a highly secure interface. The payment in the beneficiary’s accounts will be confirmed immediately after verification of the beneficiary details. Raast system verifies the details with the beneficiaries and its banks before crediting the payment to the beneficiary’s account.

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The SBP said that after the initial pilot phase, the facility will extend to meet all the salaries, pensions as well as supplier payments of the federal and provincial governments. The SBP is also working to harness the powerful capabilities of Raast. To include the payments of Ehsas program, BISP and other government institutions.

SBP | State Bank of Pakistan | Raast | Digital Payments | Government Payments |