{
  "id": 19893429,
  "title": "Kayani urges banks to accelerate ‘Cashless Pakistan Initiative’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/14/kayani-urges-banks-to-accelerate-cashless-pakistan-initiative",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-11-14T00:46:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Recorder",
    "slug": "business-recorder",
    "url": "https://www.brecorder.com/news/40448872/kayani-urges-banks-to-accelerate-cashless-pakistan-initiative"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Minister of State for Finance, Bilal Azhar Kayani, met with leaders from the Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) in Karachi to discuss the Government's Cashless Pakistan Initiative. The State Bank of Pakistan, Raast CEO, and Karandaaz officials were also present at the meeting. Kayani provided an update on the initiative's progress, which includes increased digital payments adoption and digital government payments. He shared the targets set for the fiscal year 2026 and highlighted the significant progress made towards achieving them.\n\nKayani urged banks to actively participate in the initiative and emphasized the government's support, such as the Raast QR subsidy to reduce merchant discount rate (MDR) charges. He informed the attendees that the Prime Minister's Cashless Committee would refine its targets and adopt new indicators to accelerate digital payments adoption. Kayani invited banking executives to share their insights on improving the digitization of payments in Pakistan.\n\nHe directed the State Bank of Pakistan to consult with banks' chief digital officers, Raast CEO, and Karandaaz to develop recommendations for the Prime Minister's Cashless Committee. The focus of these consultations will be on enhancing the user experience for digital payment methods, particularly QR payments, and finalizing practical suggestions to support wider adoption.\n\nKayani commended Karandaaz for its role in supporting the initiative and thanked PBA for hosting the meeting. He expressed his appreciation for PBA's commitment to the Cashless Pakistan Initiative and anticipated further discussions with banks at PBA in the coming months. PBA expressed gratitude to the Minister for the visit and reaffirmed the banking sector's dedication to achieving the national objective of a cashless society.",
  "summary": "KARACHI: Minister of State for Finance, Bilal Azhar Kayani, visited the Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) head office in Karachi to meet the presidents, chief executive officers and chief digital officers of banks regarding the Prime Minister’s Cashless Pakistan Initiative. Officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the CEO of Raast and officials of Karandaaz also attended the meeting. The…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": "The government's push for digital payment adoption through subsidies and stakeholder consultations signals a strategic shift toward reducing merchant costs to accelerate the transition to a cashless national economy.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}