Talking to APP here Thursday, he said that in first phase franchise banking besides other big cities of the country will also be started in Peshawar and Mardan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The system, he said would be later extended to more cities.

The facility, he said will benefit those who are not having bank account and they could be easily transfer money through mobile phones. The transaction, he said will take only one minute.

In the second phase, beginning from October 1, 2012, the facility will be extended to overseas Pakistanis, through which they will be able to transfer their remittances any time and their families will easily collect them in any city of the country.

The system, he said is successfully in operation in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India as HBL has a vast network in Pakistan, therefore, consumers in Pakistan will not face any difficulties in this regard.

HBL, he said is famous for provision of quality banking facilities. He said that the franchise banking will be completely commercial and the people could take benefit of it even only through their mobile phones.