Pakistan Goes Cashless: Raast Hits 1.9 Billion Transactions in 2026
A country long run on cash is switching to digital rails faster than almost anyone expected. Here are the numbers behind the shift, and what it means for your money.
Pakistan processed 3.4 billion retail transactions worth about PKR 167 trillion in a single recent quarter, and roughly 92 percent of that value moved through digital channels rather than cash. At the centre of the change sits Raast, the central bank instant payment system, which has now cleared 1.9 billion transactions worth PKR 44.3 trillion for 48 million registered users. A cash economy is becoming a digital one in real time.
For decades, Pakistan was a textbook cash economy. Salaries came in envelopes, shopkeepers kept ledgers by hand, and most adults never touched a bank account. That picture is changing quickly. A combination of a free national payment rail, a wave of licensed digital banks, and a young population with cheap smartphones has pushed the country past a tipping point. The story is no longer whether Pakistan will go cashless, but how fast, and who benefits.
Raast is the engine of the shift
Raast, which means direct path in Urdu, is the State Bank of Pakistan instant payment system. It moves money between accounts and wallets in seconds, at any time of day, and it does so free of charge. It now supports person to person transfers, person to merchant payments, and government to person disbursements such as pensions and welfare payments.
The scale is what makes the numbers striking. Raast has processed 1.9 billion transactions worth PKR 44.3 trillion, and 48 million citizens are now registered on the network. That is a large share of the adult population using a single free rail, which is the kind of network effect that makes cash steadily less convenient by comparison.
1.9 billion Raast transactions
Worth PKR 44.3 trillion, settled instantly and free of charge across the network.
48 million registered users
A large share of banked adults now linked to a single instant payment rail.
92 percent of value is digital
Of 3.4 billion retail transactions worth PKR 167 trillion in one quarter, most value moved without cash.
450 fintech firms, 391 million dollars
Cumulative investment across the sector, a sign of renewed confidence in the ecosystem.
A new generation of digital banks
Payments are only half of the story. Pakistan has also licensed a set of digital only banks that operate without branches. Established wallets such as Easypaisa have become full banks, international players like Mashreq have entered with a digital first model, and newer names have secured licences of their own. Raqami secured its commercial banking licence in February 2026, and further investment continues to flow in, including a 20 million dollar infusion into Mobilink Bank early in the year.
For a full comparison of what each licensed bank offers, see our guide to the licensed digital banks in Pakistan. The short version is that opening an account no longer means visiting a branch, filling forms, or waiting days. Many accounts open in minutes from a phone.
Why this matters for your money
Lower cost
Instant transfers on Raast are free, and the central bank has banned many account and portal fees. Moving money should no longer cost you money.
Faster access
Salaries, refunds and payments settle in seconds, which improves cash flow for households and small businesses alike.
Wider inclusion
People who never had a bank account can now save, receive and spend digitally, which pulls savings into the formal system.
A base for the future
Digital rails make it easier to build savings, insurance and investment products on top, all reachable from one app.
There is a caution worth keeping in mind. As more of daily life moves onto phones, fraud and social engineering follow. Never share a one time passcode, treat unexpected calls asking you to move money as suspicious, and use only official apps. The convenience is real, and so is the need for basic digital hygiene. Because the central bank has removed many fees, you should also check that your provider is not quietly charging for services that are meant to be free, as covered in our note on the SBP zero fee mandate.
What comes next
The roadmap points in three directions. First, cross border linkages, so that remittances from the Gulf and beyond can arrive instantly rather than through slow and costly channels. Second, open application programming interfaces, which let fintech firms build new services directly on top of the payment rail. Third, deeper merchant adoption, so that paying a shop by phone becomes as normal as paying a friend. The industry is set to gather at the Pakistan FinTech Summit on 18 and 19 August 2026, the first international expansion of the Dubai FinTech Summit, which is itself a signal of how seriously the region now takes the market.
Put the convenience to work
A digital account is most useful when it does more than move money. Once your payments are instant and free, the next step is to make your savings work as hard as your spending. If you want to understand how Pakistanis are weighing safe, liquid savings against higher risk options, start with our comparison of gold, bonds and stocks, and our guide to the full digital banking landscape.