CEO Mashreq on the rise of a generation that banks differently

For our parents, opening a bank account was a rite of passage. It was their first brush with adulthood, complete with signatures, forms, and an approving nod from the branch manager. For today’s generation, their financial transactions take five minutes on a phone they carry everywhere. The meaning of trust in financial services has changed.

Across Pakistan, a new generation of financially active citizens is reshaping how the industry operates. They are not bound by geography or income level, but by how they choose to interact with the world. They order, invest, and earn through digital channels, and they value autonomy, speed, and clarity above formality. Their expectations are shaped by the seamless experiences they encounter in ride-hailing, e-commerce, and entertainment apps.

This shift is reflected in how students now pay their fees through mobile transfers, how professionals manage cross-border earnings seamlessly, and how households handle their savings from the privacy of their devices.

Convenience and agility are no longer added benefits; they have become the benchmarks to earn credibility.

The transformation is reinforced by hard data. According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s latest Payment Systems Review, retail transactions reached 2.4 billion in the third quarter of FY25, amounting to PKR 164 trillion. Digital channels accounted for nearly 89% of all retail payments in this period, reflecting how technology has become central to financial behavior. Within this, mobile and internet banking platforms together processed 1,686 million transactions worth Rs 27 trillion, reflecting quarterly growth of 16% in volume and 22% in value. The figures point to a deeper, sustained evolution in the way Pakistanis manage their financial lives.

‘The shift from branch-centric to customer-centric is not cosmetic’

For decades, most banks relied on an analog core. Digital tools were often layered on top of systems that were never designed for real-time interaction. Account opening required physical presence, statements required printing, and service meant waiting. That model cannot serve a population whose average age is twenty-three and whose instinct, when facing a problem, is to search, swipe, or scan. The shift from branch-centric to customer-centric is not cosmetic. It represents a deeper transition from institutions that manage money to partners that enable progress.

Within this transformation, two customer groups are defining the future of banking: the digital natives, those who grew up online and expect financial services to function in the background, quietly and intuitively, with little patience for systems that require paperwork or delays; and the digitally frustrated, which include experienced professionals who have long relied on traditional banking but now find its processes incompatible with their fast-paced lives.

Both share a single priority: time. The institution that values customers’ time earns their trust faster than one that competes on rates or slogans.

Pakistan’s financial evolution also reflects a paradox. Even in areas where electricity might be irregular, smartphones are common. In interior Sindh and South Punjab, it is common to find homes without a consistent power supply yet they are equipped with solar panels used almost entirely to charge mobile phones. The image says more than statistics ever could: people may live without steady electricity, but never without connection.

Connectivity has reached farther than infrastructure, creating the groundwork for inclusion that was once unimaginable. The challenge now is not physical access but confidence. Many potential users hesitate to transact digitally because they fear error or loss of control. Building trust requires more than innovation; it requires empathy, clarity, and continuous education.

When people begin to trust the technology in their hands, digital inclusion turns into empowerment. And that empowerment takes on its most transformative form when it reaches women.

Female empowerment and inclusion

Women represent one of the most promising dimensions of this inclusion. Long excluded from the formal financial system, they are now among the fastest-growing adopters of digital wallets and savings platforms. A smartphone in their hands can unlock financial independence and redefine economic participation. When banks design for accessibility and dignity, they do more than capture market share. They strengthen communities.

Women don’t save like men, and that’s a good thing

As Pakistan advances toward a more digital economy, supported by initiatives such as Raast, the digitization of government services, and the modernization of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the concept of banking itself is being rewritten. The next phase of competition will not be about transaction speed alone.

It will focus on how intelligently a platform anticipates customer needs, how responsibly it uses data, and how seamlessly it integrates into daily life. Artificial intelligence and analytics will soon personalize financial journeys, automating decisions that once required manual intervention. Cybersecurity will be inseparable from brand reputation, and trust will depend not only on compliance but on transparency.

Across the world, digital-first institutions are proving what happens when banking aligns with modern behavior. Platforms built on simplicity and trust now serve millions who may never step into a branch, showing that convenience and confidence have replaced location and legacy as the true drivers of loyalty. Scale followed usefulness as everyday transactions became effortless. When banking solved daily needs, customers brought the rest of their finances with them. Speed built trust, and once transfers settled in seconds, queues felt like a choice no one needed to make. The winning model treated the branch as optional and the phone as primary.

In Pakistan, I see the same potential every day. From young entrepreneurs managing payments through messaging apps to families in smaller towns using solar panels just to keep their phones charged, people are already proving how adaptable and determined they are. That understanding guided us at Mashreq as we shaped NEO, a digital-first banking service built for inclusivity, convenience, and compliance. From seamless account opening to Shariah-compliant savings, real-time transfers, and zero-fee remittances through global corridors, NEO embodies one simple belief: Pakistanis deserve technology that matches their pace, their optimism, and their drive to move forward.

The future of Pakistan’s banking ecosystem will be measured less by the number of branches opened and more by the number of customers who never need one. The State Bank’s regulatory clarity - from its digital bank licensing framework to cloud outsourcing guidelines - has created the foundation for this next chapter. The market is ready, the infrastructure is prepared, and the customer is already moving forward. What remains is for institutions to match this momentum with courage and foresight.