Raast P2M service launched to facilitate digital payment acceptance

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday launched a Raast Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payment service to facilitate digital payment acceptance for merchants and businesses.

As part of Raast implementation project, the SBP instructed banks, Micro Finance Banks (MFBs), Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), Payment System Operators (PSOs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to enable Raast P2M service for their customers, said a statement issued.

The Raast P2M system will enable merchants to accept payments through different modes including Unified Quick Response (QR) Codes, Raast Alias (such as mobile phones), bank accounts (IBAN), and Request to Pay (RTP). The technical specifications in this regard have already been shared with REs.

A circular issued by SBP’s Digital Finance Group requires all regulated entities (REs) to enable capabilities such as Read/Scan RAAST QR Codes, Process Request to Pay (Now and Later), Push Payments to merchant RAAST Aliases and IBANs and initiate the request for returns or refunds in their respective Apps by March 01, 2024.

The REs were further instructed to provide efficient, seamless and easy to use interfaces to their customers while they were also directed not to charge any fee from their customers using Raast payment options to pay for their transactions.

To ensure maximum adoption of digital payment through Raast P2M Service, all REs were instructed not to restrict number and amount of transactions performed by their customers, provide instant transaction confirmation and make account statements available for customers on digital channels -apps and internet portals- in real time.

The SBP has also instructed the existing merchants acquiring REs to complete the integration with ‘RAAST’ for enabling their respective merchants and e-commerce players to accept payments through ‘RAAST’ P2M service by March 31, 2024.

Further, all REs shall ensure that billers/bill-aggregators already on-boarded by them are also enabled to accept payments via Raast payment options by March 31, 2024.

All the REs were also required to devise comprehensive dispute resolution, liability and risk management frameworks for on-boarded merchants as well as for third parties along with taking necessary steps to prevent loss of customer data and funds due to cyber security threats as well as preventing frauds and misuse of Raast P2M Service.

SBP has also advised merchant service provider (MSPs) to initially waive off service charges and enter into agreement with other REs to offer specialized services, packages, discounts and loyalty programs to promote adoption of Raast merchant services.

Earlier, the central bank had already launched person-to-person (P2P) and bulk payment transfers on Raast.

Raast’s initial adoption has gone very well. More than 32 million account holders have enrolled with Raast thus far, and 225 million transactions totaling more than Rs4.6 trillion have been completed on the Raast platform, according to data from the SBP.