Raast tokenisation PISP is shaping up to be the most consequential upgrade to Pakistan’s digital payments infrastructure since the system first launched in 2021. Raast, the State Bank of Pakistan’s instant payment rail, is already on a historic trajectory, and SBP is now quietly laying the groundwork for an entirely new payments layer on top of it.
Raast’s Rs140 Trillion Moment
Raast CEO Ahson Saeed revealed at the 19th Mobile Commerce-2026 conference that Raast is projected to process transactions worth more than Rs140 trillion (approximately USD 500 billion) during calendar year 2026. To put that in perspective, the projected transaction volume exceeds the estimated size of Pakistan’s economy, which is expected to reach Rs125.55 trillion in FY2026-27.
The scale of daily activity is equally striking. Raast currently processes roughly 10 to 11 million transactions, amounting to more than Rs500 billion on a peak day. And the quarterly numbers back this up: Raast processed 646 million transactions worth Rs18 trillion during the second quarter (October-December) of FY2025-26, underscoring the remarkable pace at which Pakistan’s digital economy is expanding.
For context, the first trillion rupees in transactions took 360 days to process, but today the same volume is achieved every nine days. That kind of acceleration is rare in any market, let alone one where cash still accounts for more than 85 percent of all transactions.
What Is Raast Tokenisation PISP and Why Does It Matter?
While the volume numbers grab headlines, the more significant story is what SBP is building next. The SBP is preparing to launch a new consent-based pull payment mechanism that will enable businesses and service providers to collect payments directly from customers’ bank accounts after obtaining prior authorisation. The system, currently undergoing testing, will be supported by tokenisation technology to further strengthen transaction security.
This is the Raast tokenisation PISP framework in action. Under the current setup, payments on Raast are mostly push transactions: a user manually initiates a transfer. The new model flips this around. New players will come out with a PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) proposition, where consent can be taken prior to the execution of a payment, and then the payments can be pulled. It is already in testing and is already in the process of being launched very soon.
Tokenisation adds a critical security layer to this model. Instead of transmitting actual bank account details during a transaction, a unique digital token is used, reducing the risk of data theft or fraud. SBP’s own participation framework formally defines the PISP category: a Payment Initiation Service means a payment service for electronically initiating a payment on the request of the payment service user for effecting the payment from his or her account or wallet held at a financial institution on the basis of consent provided by that payment service user.
You can read the full SBP Raast Participation Criteria document for the technical definition of PISPs and how they fit within the Raast ecosystem. The foundational overview of the system is also available on the official SBP Raast page.
What This Means for Consumers
For ordinary Pakistanis, the shift to consent-based pull payments could change how they pay recurring bills, subscriptions, and instalments. Rather than logging into an app each time, a user would grant prior consent for a business to pull a specific amount from their account. Think electricity bills, school fees, or insurance premiums debited automatically but only after the user has explicitly approved the arrangement.
Tokenisation means the actual account number is never exposed to the merchant or service provider during this process, making each transaction inherently more secure than sharing raw banking credentials.
The Opportunity for Fintechs
The PISP category is essentially a new licence class, and it opens a door that previously did not exist in Pakistan’s payments landscape. Fintech companies authorised as PISPs will be able to offer payment initiation services on behalf of users, allowing customer consent to be secured before payment execution and enabling payments to be initiated seamlessly.
Faisal Mahmood, Head of Digital Public Infrastructure at Karandaaz Pakistan, noted that Pakistan has already established the foundational digital infrastructure required to support the growth of digital payment systems, with the key challenge now being how to generate economic value from this infrastructure and scale digital payment systems to unlock their full economic potential.
The tokenisation piece also benefits card networks. 1Link CEO Najeeb Agrawalla announced plans to launch the PayPak credit card and tokenisation-based transactions both in 2026. This signals that tokenisation is not just an SBP backend project but an industry-wide direction.
The Cash Problem Still Looms Large
Despite Raast’s impressive volume, the battle against cash is far from over. SBP Deputy Governor Saleem Ullah pointed out that more than Rs11.2 to 11.3 trillion is currently circulating in cash outside the banking system. If Rs2.5 trillion to Rs3 trillion of this is brought back into the banking system, it will benefit everybody, banks, fintechs, and all stakeholders, and help overcome the huge undocumented and informal economy.
Merchant adoption remains the weak link. Micro and small businesses remain hesitant to adopt digital payments due to transaction fees, limited awareness, and fear of tax exposure. To address this, the subsidy programme for person-to-merchant P2M QR Code-based transactions is a three-year programme, with the government having already allocated Rs3.5 billion for September 2025 to June 2026.
If you want to understand why merchant-side adoption has been such a hard problem, our earlier coverage of Raast P2M merchant adoption and why QR payments are struggling goes deeper into the structural barriers at play.
The PISP model could actually help here. If businesses can initiate pulls from customer accounts with prior consent, the reliance on QR-code scans at the point of sale becomes less critical. Subscription-style digital payments may bypass the QR adoption hurdle altogether.
Government Payments on Raast
The SBP has set a target that by the end of the current fiscal year, all government payments will be routed through Raast. Initially, SBP pushed government departments to adopt digital payments, and the response has grown stronger, with the bulk payments facility bringing not just G2P payments to Raast but also dividend payments and other disbursements.
Routing government disbursements, salaries, subsidies, and tax refunds through a single instant rail is a significant milestone for financial documentation in Pakistan. It also creates a natural on-ramp for millions of Pakistanis who receive government payments to start using Raast for personal transactions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PISP in Pakistan’s Raast system?
A Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) is an entity authorised by SBP to initiate payments on behalf of users. Under the Raast framework, a PISP can pull payments from a customer’s bank account or wallet, but only after the customer has given prior consent. This makes recurring and subscription-style payments more seamless and secure.
What is tokenisation in the context of Raast?
Tokenisation replaces sensitive bank account details with a unique digital token during a payment transaction. The new pull payment system being developed by SBP will be supported by tokenisation technology to further strengthen transaction security. This means your actual account number is never exposed to a merchant or third-party service during the transaction.
How much is Raast projected to process in 2026?
Pakistan’s instant payment system Raast is projected to process online transactions worth more than USD 500 billion, equivalent to Rs140 trillion, in 2026, exceeding the size of the domestic economy estimated at USD 452 billion for FY26.
When will Raast tokenisation PISP services launch?
New players are expected to offer PISP solutions allowing customer consent to be secured before payment execution and payments to be initiated seamlessly, with the system currently being tested and expected to be launched shortly. No exact public launch date has been announced by SBP as of mid-2026.
