PayPal, an American company that operates a worldwide online payment system to provide online payment solutions, will be brought to Pakistan by the new government.
According to ProPakistani, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, next week, meeting with world leaders, energy industry CEOs, and trade delegations. He’ll also meet with PayPal officials and ask them to come to Pakistan to establish their services.
They further stated that the Ministries of Finance and Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) are researching the proposal and that officials from at least one of the ministries will attend the meeting.
PM Sharif requested a report from the MoITT on IT reforms and the reasons why PayPal has not been brought to Pakistan during today’s Cabinet meeting.
Attempts to introduce the global online payment giant to Pakistan were undertaken in 2015 and 2019, but it was rejected. PayPal’s biggest concern in entering the Pakistani market is the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) large list of regulatory restrictions and the complex three-step approval process.
According to sources, one of these issues is Pakistan’s inclusion on the FATF gray list. Due to FATF requirements, international electronic payment service providers must comply with strict customer regulations and avoid money laundering, or their licenses will be revoked by the SBP.
