KARACHI, Dec 19: State Bank Governor Yaseen Anwar said on Wednesday that mobile phone subscribers are almost 120 million while banking accounts stand at 32 million whereas the number of borrowers is only 5.7 million which indicates that there exists a large ‘financially-excluded’ market.

“Bringing this un-served market into the formal financial system is our key objective as we believe that this would enrich socio-economic development of our country,” he said while inaugurating a one-day workshop on ‘Future of Branchless Banking, Payment Systems and Financial Inclusion’, jointly organised by SBP, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) of the World Bank in Karachi.

He pointed out that brick and mortar retail network of the entire financial industry of Pakistan stands at 11,000 outlets after 65 years while branchless banking retail agents’ network has grown beyond 32,000 agents in a short span of three years.

With almost 1.8 million mobile banking accounts, the branchless banking customers conducted almost 32 million transactions worth Rs140 billion during the quarter ending September 2012, he said, adding that average size of each transaction is Rs4065 which shows that technology is helping ‘financial access’ of the un-banked population of the country.

Mr Anwar said that 90 per cent of total bank branches are currently processing real-time online banking services across the country.

“One million internet banking users, 1.8 million mobile phone banking users, and more than 10 million call centre users are enjoying virtual banking,” he added.

Stressing the need for modernising and expanding the payments system infrastructure segments, Mr Anwar said that a proposal is under consideration at SBP for preparation of Payment Systems Strategic Road Map for the next five years.

Mr Anwar urged banks and mobile network operators (MNOs) to promote branchless banking for the benefit of the un-banked and underserved people of the country.

“If banks and mobile network operators want to succeed, they have to assign a strategic priority to branchless banking,” he said.

He emphasised that the boards and chief executives of banks and MNOs must have ownership of branchless banking and added that this would help bring commitment, attention and support from every level of the organisations to this innovative, exciting and challenging service.

Mr. Anwar said the last five years average shows that 36 per cent of the transactions were routed through electronic channels depicting a 23 per cent average yearly growth as compared to two per cent average growth in paper based transactions.

Although, these statistics show an increasing trend, which is still insignificant for a country of 180 million inhabitants with a high currency in circulation of Rs1.9 trillion, he said, adding that this high currency in circulation is due to the fact that a majority of our population is disconnected from banking system, and is heavily reliant on cash-based transactions.