Pakistani card payment service
PayPak (Urdu: پے پاک) is a Pakistani domestic financial services and payment service launched by 1Link under the State Bank of Pakistan Vision 2020. Currently, 35 of the country's banks have adopted it.[1] The reason to launch this domestic payment scheme was to save inter-change costs of International Payment Schemes. PayPak cards can only be used on ATMs & POS Terminals throughout Pakistan and enabled for online transactions.[2]
The new payment scheme aims to compete in the domestic market with other international payment schemes like Visa, MasterCard & UnionPay.[3]
Technology and license
PayPak uses the Gemalto's product PURE.[4] PURE is an off-the-shelf payment application from Gemalto that is fully compliant with the EMV™ standard. It is designed for dommes and private payment card associations looking for chip-based security and fast time to market. PURE is also a scheme-agnostic EMV application that private-label card issuers and national payment associations can use without the need to enter into a business agreement with another payment scheme.
Market share
The uptake of the payment scheme has been slow.[5] As of February 2021[update], more than 4 million PayPak cards have been issued[2] – representing 3.5% of the 41.9 million payment cards issued in the country.[6]
PayPak has over 25% of market share in terms of volume of cards in the market.[7]
While Visa has 40%, Mastercard and UnionPay have 25% each of market share.[7]
Pakistan
