KARACHI – Standard Chartered Bank, a globally leading financial institution operating in Pakistan has recently signed an agreement with National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) – a specialized institution for enabling digital commerce payments. Through this agreement, Standard Chartered Bank will connect to “NIFT ePay” as an ‘Issuer’ and ‘Acquirer’ to facilitate its clients. The primary focus of this Digital Financial Services Platform is to execute interoperable and secure digital-commerce payments, using any bank account, card and wallet in Pakistan.
With this agreement, Standard Chartered Pakistan brings its international Omni-channels collections offering for its corporate clients – Straight2Bank Pay – providing multiple payment options to end-consumers both online and offline. The solution acts as a one-stop-shop to accelerate clients’ ability to scale and collect digitally, working with a single provider, a single point of integration, and minimal investment. The clients benefit from Standard Chartered’s superior infrastructure that meets the highest standards of security, integrity, and stability, along with receiving real-time payment notifications powered by data analytics. This agreement also enables Standard Chartered Bank’s account-holders to be able to pay the NIFT ePay merchants, opening up a new payment option for the bank’s customers.
NIFT ePay provides an opportunity to retail end-consumers who don’t have Debit or Credit Card to conduct e-commerce transactions directly through their current or savings accounts. These consumers can maintain their account with any NIFT ePay member bank to transact for e-commerce purchases, where Standard Chartered Bank will also act as the collecting bank offering a digital online platform to their corporate collection mandates through an account-based local payment gateway.
Standard Chartered Bank has been at the forefront of digital innovation, with its network of 42 branches operating all over Pakistan, in the Corporate, Retail and Islamic Banking sectors. This partnership has created greater convenience for Standard Chartered Bank’s clientele, enabling them to make digital payments on the retail side, while at the same time allowing its corporate clients to collect, as well as, pay for these transactions.
The signing ceremony was chaired by Mr. Rehan Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited, and Mr. Haider Wahab, CEO, NIFT who signed the agreement along with Mr. Shiraz Hyder, Head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan. Other senior officials who graced the occasion included; Mr. Arslan Nayeem, Head of Client Coverage, CCIB Pakistan – and Mr. Fawad Abdul Kader, Head of Digital Financial Services at NIFT and others representing the collaborating institutions.
Speaking on the occasion, Shiraz Hyder, Head of Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan remarked, “Straight2Bank Pay is a one-stop global platform, providing consumers the flexibility to pay online through multiple digital options – i.e. through wallets, debit/credit cards, or account transfers. It will aid our corporate clients to enhance their e-commerce presence, while we help them collect digitally from end-consumers, all through a single integration, one contract, and their existing collections account with us. Our partnership with NIFT is of significant importance as we help our customers expand their e-commerce marketplaces while providing digital collections and payment options for players in their ecosystems”.
Mr. Fawad Kadeer, Head of Digital Financial Services, NIFT said, “We are pleased to sign up Standard Chartered Bank as an Issuer and Acquirer for NIFT ePay services, enabling the bank’s account holders to make payments on NIFT ePay Platform through their bank accounts and also allowing Standard Chartered Bank to offer online collections to its corporate and business relationships. Standard Chartered Bank has been offering reliable and convenient services to its customers and maintains its niche in the financial services space and has a great potential in digitizing payments and collections, in partnership with NIFT, especially for Business Payments”.
