The country’s branchless banking (BB) sector has been able to show growth over the years. Despite the challenging economic circumstances, the country’s BB sector was able to post impressive growth in the transactions during 2022. And now in the 9MCY23 as per the latest data by the SBP, the transactions have continued to grow. The BB transaction volumes during Jul-Sep quarter 2023 grew by 33 percent year-on-year, while the quarter-on-quarter growth stood at 3.4 percent. Overall, in 9MCY23, the overall BB transaction volumes stood at 2.85 billion, up by 31 percent year-on-year.
The transaction value crossed Rs13 trillion in 9MCY23 with an impressive growth of 31 percent. The transaction value during Jul-Sep quarter was around Rs4,497 billion,up by 42 percent year-on-year, while the quarter-on-quarter reflected 2 percent growth. Average BB customer transaction however came down to Rs4,616 in Jul-Sep 2023 versus Rs4,670 for Apr-Jun 2023, mostly due to higher inflation.
The whopping increase in the number of ‘active’ BB users to 62,9 million in Jul-Sep 2023 is also a significant improvement as previously there was a perception that the service providers were struggling to broaden the access. In CY22, active BB users actually fell by 5 percent year-on-year.
The growth can also be seen in the rising number of total accounts to 111 million by Sep 2023 end, up from 97 million on Dec 31, 2022. The share of active BB accounts stood at 56.65 percent during the Jul-Sep 2023 quarter versus 44,25 percent in Apr-Jun 2023 quarter, and 44 percent in CY22.
Gender segregation shows that digital social disbursements are enabling the share of females in BB accounts, especially in provinces of KP, Sindh and Punjab. There were expectations that the hyperinflation and rising unemployment would affect the BB transaction growth during the year, which has been negated with a significant growth in transaction volumes.
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