PayPal, an American corporation that operates a worldwide online payment system to provide online payment solutions, will be brought to Pakistan by the new government.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, next week, where he will meet global leaders, energy industry CEOs, and trade delegations. He’ll also meet with PayPal personnel and invite them to come to Pakistan to launch their services.
They further stated that the Ministries of Finance and Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) are researching the project, and that officials from at least one of the ministries will attend the conference. 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 bring the global online payment giant to Pakistan were undertaken in 2015 and 2019, but it rejected. PayPal’s main concern in entering the Pakistani market is the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) large list of regulatory constraints and the cumbersome three-step approval process.
According to sources, one of these issues is Pakistan’s inclusion on the FATF grey list. Due to FATF requirements, international electronic payment service providers must adhere to tight client regulations and avoid money laundering, or their licences will be revoked by the SBP.