Mobile banking in Pakistan has officially moved from an afterthought to the number one investment priority for the country’s banks. A report in Dawn’s Business and Finance Weekly, published on 14 September 2026, highlights a shift that many bank customers may not have noticed yet but will feel very soon. For years, banks poured money into branch networks and left their apps as a secondary concern. That era is ending.
Mobile Banking Pakistan Now Leads Bank Spending
The signal is clearest in how banks are rebuilding their digital products. Bank AL Habib recently launched AL Habib Digital, a newly built mobile app that signals a meaningful change for a market where mobile banking has often trailed behind the branch network in both attention and investment. The app was not updated, it was rebuilt from scratch as a native product. That kind of spend used to be reserved for new branches, not software.
This is not a one-bank story. Strategic investments in digital capabilities and innovation are becoming central to long-term value creation across Pakistan’s banking sector, according to KPMG’s Pakistan Banking Perspective 2026. The shift is backed by hard numbers from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The Numbers Behind the Shift
Pakistanis made 3.4 billion digital payments worth Rs68 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, showing a big shift toward cashless banking. To put that in perspective, that is more digital spending in three months than most people thought possible just five years ago.
Digital channels handled 92% of the 3.7 billion retail transactions worth Rs168.8 trillion processed through the formal banking system between January and March, driven by the growing use of mobile banking apps, digital wallets, internet banking and the Raast instant payment platform.
According to SBP’s quarterly review, 78% of all digital payments in Pakistan are now done through mobile banking apps, a jump that shows citizens are embracing digital transactions at an accelerating pace. During January to March 2026, mobile app-based payments reached 2.9 billion transactions.
Raast Is the Engine Forcing Banks to Compete
A big reason banks are now racing to improve their apps is Raast, Pakistan’s official instant payment system. Raast processed 742.1 million transactions valued at Rs23.3 trillion during January to March 2026, with person-to-person payments rising 10% over the previous quarter to 664 million transactions worth Rs18.9 trillion.
The government is pushing even harder. SBP revealed that the government allocated a Rs3.5 billion subsidy programme to encourage merchants to adopt Raast and set an ambitious target of routing all government payments through the platform by the end of fiscal year 2025-26.
Banks that offer a poor app experience are now losing customers directly to fintech rivals and digital wallets. That competitive pressure is what is forcing the change in investment priority.
User Numbers Tell the Same Story
By March 2026, registrations for mobile banking and digital wallet applications had exceeded 132 million, growing 37% year-on-year, while internet banking users reached 16.2 million. For comparison, a year before that figure was around 96 million. Pakistan added roughly 36 million new mobile banking users in a single year.
Over the past year, the volume of retail digital transactions increased from around 6.9 billion to nearly 12 billion, while the number of active merchants expanded from roughly half a million to more than 2 million. Mobile banking app users reached nearly 137 million, while the share of home remittances credited through digital channels rose from about 80% to 92%.
What This Means for the Ordinary Bank Customer
Better apps, faster payments, and fewer reasons to visit a branch are the most direct benefits for everyday users. But there is a gap that most coverage of this topic misses: while digital channels now handle 92% of all transactions by volume, they represent only around 40% of total retail payment value, suggesting Pakistan has made remarkable progress in digitising the frequency of payments, but substantial headroom remains to digitise higher-value financial activity.
In plain words: Pakistanis are using apps for small daily transfers, but big payments like rent, business invoices, and savings products still largely flow through older channels. The next wave of bank investment in mobile will target exactly this gap.
The next phase of digital transformation must therefore move beyond transaction digitisation towards end-to-end digital financial journeys, encompassing payments, savings, investments, financing and insurance, as Dawn’s analysis notes.
What Banks Are Building Next
This includes the development of real-time payment infrastructure, the introduction of digital banking frameworks, measures to encourage fintech innovation and collaboration, and the continued expansion of mobile-based financial services.
Digital banks in Pakistan operate under a dedicated SBP Digital Bank Licensing Framework issued in 2022. They have no physical branches and deliver all services through a mobile app. As of 2026, Pakistan has 3 major licensed digital banks. These fully app-based banks are also adding pressure on traditional banks to raise their digital standards.
For Pakistani bank customers, the practical takeaway is simple: your bank’s app is about to get a lot better, faster, and more capable. The shift in investment priority is real, and the benefits will show up on your phone screen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Pakistan’s banks suddenly investing more in mobile banking?
The main reasons are SBP’s push for a digital payment ecosystem, the rapid growth of Raast, and competition from fintech apps and digital wallets. Banks that offer weak app experiences are losing customers, so improving mobile banking is now a survival priority, not just a nice-to-have.
How many people use mobile banking in Pakistan right now?
By March 2026, mobile banking and digital wallet registrations had exceeded 132 million, growing 37% year-on-year. The SBP Governor noted the figure had reached close to 137 million by mid-2026.
What is Raast and why does it matter for mobile banking?
Raast is Pakistan’s government-backed instant payment system, developed by the SBP. It lets users send money in real time, for free, using their mobile number. Raast processed 742.1 million transactions valued at Rs23.3 trillion in Q1 2026 alone. Because Raast works inside bank apps, it is pushing every bank to make its app better so customers stay on their platform instead of switching.
Does this mean bank branches will close?
Not immediately. The network of 20,232 bank branches and 819,397 banking agents continued to provide over-the-counter services, with branches processing 128 million transactions worth Rs99.5 trillion in Q1 2026. Branches still handle very large-value transactions. The shift is about where banks spend their next budget, not a sudden closure of physical locations.
