Telenor Bank in collaboration with Standard Chartered and ANT Financial announced a Blockchain remittance solution in an event at Serena Hotel, Islamabad today. The event chief guest was Governor of State Bank Mr. Tariq Bajwa whereas many executives of Telenor Bank and Group were also present on the occasion.
The event started with a video showing how AliPay benefits from using Blockchain in China and how payments are happening seamlessly without any discrepancy or disputes. The Ambassador of China Yao Jing, ANT Financial Chairman Eric Jing, CEO Telenor Bank Mr. Shahid Mustafa and Head of Financial Services Telenor Group Roar Bjareum were amongst the speakers of the event.
Telenor Bank announced another feature of EasyPaisa which is to transfer and receive remittances from abroad via your mobile wallet, the biggest advantage being that the transaction occurs in realtime without any additional cuts. The functionality has been enabled using Blockchain and the development process was facilitated by Valyou and ANT Financials. The initial deadline set by the Governor of State Bank was 12 months and on the worst case, 24 months, whereas the team came out with a solution within 6 months.
To give a hint of remittances value, Pakistan received more than USD 5,420 million in Q3 2018 alone from abroad. While speaking on the occasion, Mr. Yao Jing that technology is moving so fast and it is beyond his generation. This is an era of innovation and the new Pakistani government is working for implementation of state of the art technology throughout different sectors, including financial inclusion. The Government of China would further encourage such technology to be implemented and used.
Currently the remittance functionality will be tested out in a Sandbox environment to ensure State Bank’s regulations are being met. EasyPaisa is currently the first blockchain powered remittance platform in South Asia and if the tests conducted during sandboxing are passed, we can see this functionality being rolled out to the masses soon.
During his speech, Mr. Tariq Bajwa appreciated the efforts and dedication of the development team and hoped more platforms would emerge with cooperation with ANT Financials and AliPay. For each dollar coming through mobile wallet, government would be paying 2 rupees for support. He emphasized that technology not only increases efficiency in business models but it is also disrupting the existing models.
