On Friday, Pakistan’s central bank made it mandatory for all banks to issue new payment cards based on the latest technology from Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) by 30 June 2021.
To encourage clients to make payments from the first day of issuance, the cards will be pre-activated.
Previously, via phone banking or ATMs, the cardholders were expected to have them enabled. In addition, to make payments of up to Rs3,000 for online shopping or to retailers on point of sale (POS) via the new cards, there will be no need to enter PIN codes. Banks can reset the free payment limit of the PIN code as per their risk policy.
As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the features are implemented in order to create an enabling environment for online shopping (e-commerce) and to reduce transaction time through POS to merchants.
