Pakistan’s First Islamic E-Commerce Payment Gateway by Meezan Bank

A Sharia-based digital transaction system and solution for merchants and consumers (B2C) will be launched by Meezan Bank this year.

To enable Sharia-compliant cashless payment options using debit and credit cards, the bank is trying to build up online payment solutions for e-commerce companies and PoS terminals at shopping malls, restaurants, and other merchants.
This would help increase digital payments in Pakistan and meet the demands of many stores and online companies searching for Sharia-compliant solutions, according to Meezan Bank’s quarterly report.
Payment cards are more popular in Pakistan as clients choose for cashless transactions to avoid the Covid-19 epidemic.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), over 3,000 e-commerce businesses were registered with different banks, and 72,000 PoS devices were installed nationwide by the end of the previous fiscal year.
In 2020-21, e-commerce transactions reached Rs. 60 billion and PoS transactions reached Rs. 453 billion.
Easypaisa, JazzCash, Keenue, Fonepay, Payoneer, Payfast, NIFTepay are some of the e-commerce and PoS operators in Pakistan.
Launching Sharia-compliant alternatives will help the country’s payment system digitise, as faith-conscious businesses building e-commerce and retail outlets would want to use the alternative means to the regular banking system.
By using e-commerce and POS systems, merchants may deposit money directly into Islamic banks.