Digital Payments in Pakistan: Merchants Finally Moved
Raast merchant payments jumped 54% in a single quarter. The SBP numbers behind Pakistan going cashless, and what still holds it back.
Pakistanis have been sending each other money on their phones for years. Paying a shopkeeper that way was the part that never caught on. That just changed, and faster than anyone expected.
Raast merchant payments went from 36.3 million transactions to 55.9 million in a single quarter. A 54 percent jump in three months, from the State Bank of Pakistan quarterly review covering January to March 2026. Digital payments in Pakistan have had impressive headline numbers for a while, but this is the first one that suggests the shop counter is moving.
Person to person transfers grew 10 percent over the same period. Merchant payments grew five times faster.
How big are digital payments in Pakistan now?
Pakistan processed 3.7 billion retail payments worth Rs 168.8 trillion between January and March 2026, with 92 percent going through digital channels. Raast alone handled 742.1 million transactions worth Rs 23.3 trillion in that quarter.
A useful sanity check on those figures: 92 percent of 3.7 billion gives the 3.4 billion digital transactions reported separately, and the Rs 168.8 trillion total minus the Rs 99.5 trillion still moving over bank counters leaves roughly Rs 68 trillion done digitally. The numbers agree with each other, which is not always true of Pakistani payment statistics.
| Measure | Q1 2026 |
|---|---|
| Total retail payments | 3.7 billion |
| Value of those payments | Rs 168.8 trillion |
| Share through digital channels | 92% |
| Raast transactions | 742.1 million |
| Raast value | Rs 23.3 trillion |
| Raast person to merchant | 55.9 million |
Why does the merchant number matter more than the rest?
Because sending money to your cousin was never the hard problem. Getting a shopkeeper to accept digital payment instead of cash is where every country's cashless push either works or stalls.
Merchants have real reasons to prefer notes. Cash settles instantly, leaves no record for the tax authorities, and costs nothing to accept. Raast removes the third objection by being free, but the first two are cultural and fiscal, and those take longer.
A 54 percent quarterly jump suggests the resistance is cracking. One quarter is not a trend, and I would want to see the next two before calling it, but the direction is unusually clear.
What are Pakistanis actually paying with?
Mobile banking apps, overwhelmingly. They account for 78 percent of all digital payments, which makes the phone in your hand the main payment terminal in the country by a wide margin.
The user counts show where the volume sits:
- Branchless banking app users reached 95.8 million by March 2026, dwarfing every other channel.
- Conventional bank app users came to 28.9 million.
- Internet banking, the desktop era holdover, sits at 16.2 million.
- EMI wallets, the newest category, reached 7.3 million.
Worth reading that 95.8 million carefully. A large share of branchless accounts are dormant, opened for a single transfer or a government payment and never touched again. Registered users and active users are not the same thing, and the gap is wide.
Is Pakistan actually going cashless?
Not yet, and the branch figures say why. Bank branches and 819,397 banking agents still handled 128 million transactions worth Rs 99.5 trillion in the quarter, which is well over half the total value moving through the system.
That split tells you something specific. Digital wins on volume, cash and counters win on value. People pay for chai and mobile top ups on an app, then walk into a branch for anything large. Trust, habit and documentation all pull in the same direction there.
Small traders and informal workers remain the deepest holdout, and no amount of infrastructure fixes that on its own. If you are still doing utility payments the slow way, our guide to paying bills through Easypaisa or JazzCash covers the basics, and there is a walkthrough of using Raast if you have never set it up.
The documentation angle also explains why becoming a tax filer keeps coming up in the same conversation. A payment record is only uncomfortable if your tax position is, and filing costs less than most people assume. For anyone moving money in from abroad, withdrawing from Payoneer now routes through the same rails.
What does this mean for you?
More places will take a Raast payment than did six months ago, and that is worth testing before you assume otherwise. Ask. A lot of small merchants now accept it and simply do not advertise the fact.
Some practical consequences of the shift:
- Raast transfers are free and settle instantly, so paying a merchant this way costs you nothing versus cash.
- Every digital payment leaves a record, which builds a financial history you can later use for credit.
- That same record is visible for tax purposes, which is precisely why some merchants still prefer notes.
- Dormant wallet accounts get restricted, so an app you opened once and abandoned may need reactivating.
- Keeping a small cash reserve remains sensible, because coverage is not universal and outages happen.
The documentation point cuts both ways, and it is the honest tension in the whole cashless project. A payment trail helps you get a loan and helps the state find you. Whether that is a feature depends entirely on where you sit.
Frequently asked questions
How many digital payments does Pakistan process?
3.7 billion retail payments worth Rs 168.8 trillion in the January to March 2026 quarter, with 92 percent through digital channels, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.
Is Raast free to use?
Yes. Raast transfers carry no charge for the sender or the receiver, which is the main reason merchant adoption has started moving.
How fast is Raast growing?
Person to merchant payments rose 54 percent in one quarter, from 36.3 million to 55.9 million transactions. Person to person grew 10 percent over the same period.
What share of digital payments go through mobile apps?
78 percent. Mobile banking apps are now the dominant payment channel in Pakistan, ahead of internet banking, ATMs and card terminals combined.
Do Pakistanis still use cash?
Heavily, especially for larger amounts. Bank branches and agents handled Rs 99.5 trillion in the quarter, more than half the total value, even as digital took 92 percent of transaction volume.
Why do merchants prefer cash?
Cash settles instantly, costs nothing to accept and leaves no record. Raast solves the cost problem, but the documentation question is what keeps many small traders on notes.
Work it out yourself
A payment record is only awkward if your tax position is. See what you would actually owe on the 2026-27 slabs.
Salary Tax Calculator →Filing halves the advance tax on a property transfer, which is the clearest number anyone can put on it.
Property Transfer Tax Calculator →About the author
Author
Shahid joined us in 2024 as an author. He is a senior contributor to Pakistan's leading technology websites. He writes detailed articles, mostly covering his expertise in the latest tech, mobiles, apps, gadgets, and step-by-step guides. His ideology is to help people understand the latest trends and explain complex methods through very easy-to-understand guides.
