Bank Alfalah and Pakistan Bait-Ul-Mal launch a Bio Metric Based Payment Disbursement Solution for Beneficiaries

Karachi, July 25 2013 (PPI-OT): Bank Alfalah has signed an agreement with Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) for introducing a biometric based payment disbursement solution to its beneficiaries in different parts of the country. Under the agreement, the Bank will provide cash disbursements via its branchless banking offering to the beneficiaries of the Bait-ul-Mal Child Support Program as a pilot program (initially in the districts of Swat). Once successfully complete, this transparent disbursement mechanism may be extended at a broader scale to other areas in Pakistan.

Bank Alfalah’s Head of ADC and Branchless Banking Amaar Naveed said at the occasion, “Bank Alfalah is aggressively pursuing the creation of a financial ecosystem that supports innovation through technology.

This recent collaboration with PBM is a reiteration of our commitment to enhancing financial access and inclusion in order to reduce the gap between the ‘banked’ and the yet-to-be-banked’ in Pakistan.”

Bank Alfalah has been active in the Government to Persons initiative space since 2010 and to date we have distributed over PKR 7 Billion to more than 700,000 Beneficiaries for the Benazir Income Support Program and PKR 4 Billion to more than 200,000 beneficiaries of the Watan Card Scheme. We hope this is the inception of another promising initiative that we can scale up in the near future.

Mr Tariq Malik, MD PBM, speaking at the signing ceremony added, “This joint venture of both PBM and Bank Alfalah is likely to lead to the opening of a new era of the transparent and efficient disbursement of funds to the underprivileged segment of the society selected through Proxy Means Testing (PMT).”

He added that “Under this agreement, in the pilot phase, Smart Cards with bio-metric verification systems will be introduced in the districts of Swat for CSP beneficiaries. The scope of the aforementioned collaboration and related services may be extended to other parts of the country after mutual consultation.”

For more information, Contact:
Saba Karim Khan
Head of Corporate Communications
Bank Alfalah Limited
Tel: (+9221) 32423952, 021-111-777-786 (x) 2101
Email: saba.khan@bankalfalah.com