KARACHI: Branchless banking (BB) continued to show a rising trend in the third quarter (January-March 2012) of the current fiscal year (2011-12) during which BB transactions surged by 23 percent to 25.3 million as compared with 20.6 million in the preceding quarter.
According to SBP's Branchless Banking Newsletter issued here Thursday, the value of these transactions was recorded at Rs 85.092 billion, showing a growth of 7 percent as compared with Rs 79.410 billion in the quarter ended on December 31, 2011.
The average daily BB transactions increased to 280,798 in the third quarter showing a growth of 23 percent as compared to 228,858 transactions in the previous quarter. BB deposits grew by 18 percent to Rs 594 million in Jan-March 2012 quarter as compared with Rs 503 million in the preceding quarter.
The total number of Branchless Banking agents, mainly located in low income urban and rural communities, has increased by 19 percent to 26,792 in January-March FY12 quarter as compared with 22,512 in the quarter ended on December 31, 2011. Similarly, the total number of BB accounts surged by 14 percent to surpass one million mark (1,059,519) in the quarter under-review as compared with 929,184 in the previous quarter.
About 5,573 debit cards have also been provided to mobile account holders, indicating efforts to create value proposition in m-wallets.
Bills payment remained the dominating activity of Branchless Banking with 42percent share in total transaction volume, followed by person to person (over the counter) fund transfers and airtime top-ups with share of 32percent and 10percent respectively.
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