Raast: Pakistan’s Instant Payment System

Raast is Pakistan’s first instant payment system that will enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously. The state-of-the-art Pakistan’s Faster Payment System will be used to settle small-value retail payments in real time while at the same time provide a cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry including banks and fintechs.

RAAST IN CDNS:

CDNS has been approached by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to join RAAST payment system. CDNS is considering using RAAST to send and receive payments. Currently RAAST support Bulk Payments use case so CDNS can use this for-Profit Payments and Encashment of Investments.

Purpose / Scope f RASST

• CDNS require an IBFT sort of option via RAAST for Single/specific transaction, so that customer maintaining a Savings Account in CDNS may send any amount to his/any one’s account in a commercial bank, on need basis, whenever required.
• Allow customers of CDNS to register their International Bank Account Number (IBAN) maintained in other banks to their customer profile in CDNS system.
• Add a Payment Method “Pay by RAAST” in the CDNS system for outbound payments to be done via RAAST
• Send bulk payments through RAAST for following use cases.
• • Profit Payments

• • Encashment of Investment

Features of Raast

• Instantaneous payments: Near real-time digital payments across individuals, merchants, businesses, and government entities
• Low-to-no transaction costs for end users: Raast is designed to operate at a cost recovery model in order to make digital payments affordable to end users of all socio-economic backgrounds
• Full sector-wide interoperability: Raast will allow all financial institutions to seamlessly connect to each other via a single link to the central infrastructure, making digital payments accessible across any channel to customers of any financial institution
• Customer-centric innovative products/services: Raast will be built on cutting-edge technological standards, allowing financial institutions to develop innovative and user-friendly digital payment products and services (e.g. payment through phone number/email).

Reliability and enhanced security: Raast will introduce more secure payment types, ensure that each transaction is authorized by the payer, and offer enhanced data protection and fraud detection services.