Easypaisa – banking services made easy

Opening a bank account can be a tedious process, and using conventional bank services is not always efficient or practical. Easypaisa, however, makes it easy and secure for ordinary Pakistanis to pay bills, transfer money and even open a mobile bank account without having to cue up at the bank at inconvenient opening hours.

Al Jazeera TV report on mobile banking

Money transfer

In Pakistan, any person can use easypaisa services by visiting their nearest easypaisa authorized shop, Telenor Franchise, Telenor Sales & Service Center or Tameer Bank branch.

If a person wants to send his monthly salary home to his family from urban cities to rural villages, it’s easily done with Money Transfer from easypaisa. Mr. Waqar Mehmood, an office clerk living and working in Islamabad, transfers money to his family every month:

“Every month I need to send money back home to my family for their monthly expenses. Easypaisa has made sending money extremely easy, secure and convenient. Now my wife doesn’t have to travel to the bank in the city, she can easily collect the money from the nearby easypaisa shop.”

See video on mobile transfer

Bill payment

If a customer wants to pay a utility bill he or she simply hands over the bill and the payment to the shopkeeper, who immediately processes the bill and wires a receipt to the customer’s mobile. The whole process takes less than a minute.

See video on bill payment

Mobile bank account

In February 2010, easypaisa launched the new service Mobile Accounts. These are virtual bank accounts that work just like a normal bank account. Users can go to any of the thousands of easypaisa shops in Pakistan to deposit or withdraw cash from their easypaisa Mobile Account. They can also pay bills, transfer money, view checking account balance and the last five transactions, manage their pin codes and more.

See video on mobile bank account

Available 24/7

There are now easypaisa authorised retailers in every city of Pakistan, and these shops are open around the clock. Furthermore, easypaisa BillPay and Money Transfer is not just limited to Telenor Pakistan subscribers; it’s available to all people, even those who do not have mobile phones. Easypaisa Mobile Bank Account is only available for Telenor Pakistan subscribers.

Easier access to banking services

Considering that 89 per cent of the adult population in Pakistan has no bank account and 62 per cent use mobile phone services, easypaisa aims to provide financial inclusion for the urban as well as the rural population.

 ”Sending money in Pakistan has been extremely difficult. One needs to observe bank timings, lengthy paperwork and queues at the counter. Most importantly the time it takes for the money to reach home varies anywhere from 3 days to 7 days. In such a scenario, you worry about the money reaching home safely and on time so that they don’t have to take a loan from the neighbours. With easypaisa I don’t have to worry about all of this, you have more control,” says Mr. Mehmood.

Financial empowerment

”Easypaisa will allow users across the board to access convenient and secure financial services. In an environment where only 12 per cent of the adult population is formally served with financial services, easypaisa will promise tremendous financial empowerment,” said Jon Eddy Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer in Telenor Pakistan.
Easypaisa online services have been approved by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Mobile banking – a big hit in Asia

“We see a growing opportunity emerging in providing compelling financial services to our customers, as seen with the success of Dtac’s ATM SIM service in Thailand and Grameenphone’s Billpay service in Bangladesh,” said Sigve Brekke, Executive Vice President of the Telenor Group and Head of Telenor Asia at the launch of easypaisa. “Financial services are an area where telecommunication can contribute to social and economic growth,” he added.

Socio-economic impact of telecommunications

The telecom industry makes an important contribution to economic and social welfare and is an important driver of social and economic development, according to studies by the Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte.

Director of Telecom at the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Mudassar Hussain, highlighted the critical role the mobile industry has to play in providing financial access to the un-banked:

“The mobile industry is a young industry. It has been less than 20 years since it was introduced in Pakistan. Formal banking channels, on the other hand, have been around for some 60 years. Interestingly, in comparison to more than 90 million mobile subscriptions, the number of bank accounts is less than 30 million. The Ministry is of the view that this presents an immense opportunity for the mobile industry to add value to the financial sector and serve the un-banked. We have been actively supporting the consultation process and hope that easypaisa becomes a resounding success story for the industry and the country,” he says.