The Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Yaseen Anwar has recently announced that the number of real time online branches had touched the mark of 6,700 by the end of 2009.

While talking to reporters at the 3rd International Mobile Commerce Conference in Pakistan, he said, “We have now around 4,400 ATMs and the number of cards (debit/credit/ATM) in circulation has reached 10 million.”

He added that the transactional volume and value of e-payments in the months of October-December last year stood at 46.4 million and Rs 4.1 trillion, respectively.

According to him, the country’s financial sector had gone through the transformation from a paper-based nationalized era to a technology-based sector. He said that e-banking in the country is required now, and the figures are showing encouraging trends.

Further, he said, “We have given banks the liberty to select a model most suitable for its operational capabilities as well as business considerations.”

In the meantime, he also said that the mobile phone banking that comprised a huge part of branchless banking could be bring into action by using one-to-one, one-to-many business arrangements and many-to-many.