The new government is going to initiate efforts to bring PayPal — an American company operating a worldwide online payment system to provide online payment solutions — to Pakistan.
An official source told ProPakistani that Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif will attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week where he will meet global leaders, the CEOs of energy sectors, and commerce delegations. He will also meet with PayPal representatives and invite the company to launch its services in Pakistan.
They added that the Ministries of Finance and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) are researching the endeavor and the meeting will also be attended by the representatives of at least one of the ministries.
During the meeting of the Cabinet today, PM Sharif sought a briefing from the MoITT on the reforms in the IT sector and the reasons why PayPal has not been brought to Pakistan.
Attempts had been made in 2015 and 2019 to bring the global online payment giant to Pakistan but it had refused. PayPal’s major concern for entering the Pakistani market is the long list of regulatory restrictions by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the complicated three-step approval process.
Sources stated that Pakistan being on the FATF gray list is also among these problems. International electronic payment service providers have to comply with strict regulations for customers due to FATF and avoid money laundering or the SBP can cancel their licenses.