KARACHI: Branchless banking transactions dropped 4.4
percent in the third quarter of 2016 due to decline in over the counter
transactions following delay in government-to-person payments, said the central
bank’s branchless banking (BB) newsletter issued on
Friday.
The value of branchless banking
transactions fell to Rs519.8 billion during July-September 2016 from Rs543.6
billion in the previous quarter. The BB transactions stood at Rs526.4 billion
in July-September 2015.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
said that delay in the tranche of Benazir Income Support Programme affected the
volume and value of branchless banking transactions during the quarter under
review.
“The reduction in such transactions
may be transitory in nature and is likely to improve in the subsequent
quarters,” the SBP newsletter said.
The BB deposits also decreased to
Rs8.5 billion from Rs13.7 billion, showing a decline of 38 percent as compared
to the previous quarter. The average deposits per account dropped to Rs500 at
the end of third quarter from Rs942 over the April-June quarter.
The slide in these deposits is
attributed to seasonal outflow related to Eid festivities falling in the month
of September. However, the number of branchless banking accounts of the
industry increased to 16.9 million from 14.6 million, depicting a 16 percent
growth during July-September 2016 quarter.
No comments:
Post a Comment