Easypaisa: another name of convenience.

• Author: Kazmi, Shabbir

Byline: SHABBIR KAZMI

The growing population of smartphones and introduction of newer applications have contributed a lot towards financial inclusion. Over the years, one of the biggest handicaps of commercial banking has been a limited number of bank accounts, particularly in the low-income groups and remote areas. Banks have been reluctant to establish brick and mortar branches in these areas.

To address this important problem, Easypaisa can rightly take pride in having led the fintech revolution in Pakistan as soon as it came into existence. Easypaisa was launched in Pakistan in 2009 as a peer-to-peer money transfer service. However, its biggest contribution is bringing financial services to the unbanked population of Pakistan by enabling account opening, sending, and receiving money simply through a basic mobile phone.

Pioneering mobile banking in Pakistan and becoming the foremost branchless banking brand in the country, Easypaisa continued its journey towards expanding its services portfolio to serve the unbanked segments of the society and offering them services that they could only dream of.

In a very short span of time, a network of Easypaisa retailers and franchises was developed across the country, which is now serving millions of customers each day.

Easypaisa launched nano loans, a first-of-its-kind service in the South Asian region, also one of the platform's most outstanding features. These unsecured short-term loans are offered digitally and disbursed within minutes.

Easypaisa was fully cognizant of the fact that operating as a lone wolf, it may take months and years to reach out to the vast majority of people. Therefore, it decided to facilitate the users of other telco operators in using Easypaisa without hassle. Therefore, a telco-agnostic Easypaisa App was launched that brought banking literally to users' fingertips.

The App's evolution to excellence continued over the years as it allowed users to send and receive money, purchase mobile top-ups and bundles, pay utility bills, buy bus and movie tickets, avail discounts, donate to different causes, and do a lot more. Integration of QR payments functionality also made payments swifter and easier for users.

With over 50 use cases or digital payments services available on the platform today, Easypaisa is more than just a digital payments platform, it offers customers a complete digital lifestyle solution. Products such as digital lending, savings, and insurance products are...