Government to Invite PayPal in Pakistan Next Week
The new govt will begin efforts to launch PayPal (An American company that operates a global online payment system) in Pakistan to provide online payment solutions.
As per the source, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif will visit the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland next week, where he will meet global leaders, commerce delegations, and CEOs of energy industries. He would also meet with representatives from PayPal and invite them to launch their services in Pakistan.
They further reported that the Ministries of Finance and Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) are reviewing the endeavour and that representatives of at least one of the ministries will attend the meeting.
During today’s Cabinet meeting, PM Shehbaz Sharif asked for a briefing from the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) on IT sector reforms and the causes why PayPal has not been brought to Pakistan.
Initiatives to introduce the worldwide online payment company to Pakistan had been tried in 2015 and 2019, but it had refused. PayPal’s biggest concern in entering the Pakistani market is the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) lengthy list of regulatory restrictions and the complex three-step approval procedure.
As per sources, Pakistan’s inclusion on the FATF grey list is also one of these issues. Due to FATF requirements, international electronic payment service providers must comply with strict customer regulations and avoid money laundering, or the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) can cancel their licenses.
