PESHAWAR, September 15: Mastercard and the Bank of Khyber (BoK) have entered into a strategic partnership to expand digital payment services, strengthen financial inclusion and support the shift towards cashless transactions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and across Pakistan.
Under the collaboration, BoK will expand its digital payments portfolio across consumer and commercial segments, giving customers greater access to secure and convenient payment solutions.
The partnership will focus on the digitisation of personal, commercial and government transactions while expanding payment options across debit, credit, affluent and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segments.
The initiative comes as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accelerates the digitisation of public services and payments, including person-to-government, person-to-merchant and government-to-person transactions.
KP Finance Minister Muzzammil Aslam said the province had expanded from just three digitised services two years ago to 170, including pension and salary disbursements through Raast.
He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with a population of around 45 million, also offered significant untapped potential in remittances, e-commerce and merchant digitisation.
Aslam said the provincial government, as a major shareholder in Bank of Khyber, remained committed to supporting the bank’s growth as the province moved towards a cashless economy.
Islam Zeb, Additional Chief Secretary of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Chairman of BoK, said building a cashless economy was central to the bank’s strategic agenda.
“As a truly national bank, BoK aims to compete strongly by offering a comprehensive range of innovative products and services that meet customers’ evolving financial needs,” he said.
Arslan Khan, Mastercard’s Country Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the partnership reflected Mastercard’s growing collaboration with Bank of Khyber and would support further digitisation of the payments ecosystem.
“We remain committed to accelerating digitization of the payments ecosystem across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly within the debit, credit, affluent and SME segments,” Khan said.
He added that the two organisations would work to promote financial inclusion and contribute to the continued development of Pakistan’s payments landscape.
BoK Managing Director and CEO Hassan Raza described the agreement as an important milestone in the bank’s digital transformation journey.
“By expanding our card portfolio across consumer and commercial segments, we aim to offer customers greater convenience, security and access to modern payment solutions, while contributing to the growth of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s digital economy,” Raza said.
The partnership positions digital payments, card services and merchant digitisation as key areas of growth for BoK as Pakistan’s banking sector increasingly moves towards digital financial services and reduced reliance on cash.