Branchless Banking is on-the-go in Pakistan and its popularity is increasing day by day. 
This time, a much awaited announcement from Warid Telecom that it has joins hands with Bank Alfalah to start Branchless Banking in Pakistan. Warid Telecom and Bank Alfalah, both are owned by Adu Dhabi Group.
Bank Alfalah is the 6th largest bank in Pakistan which has 471 branches in 163 cities across the country is providing all the back-end assistance for the branchless banking along with the technical support of Monet.
Before this, Easypaisa by Telenor, UBL Omni by UBL, MobiCash by Mobilink via Waseela Bank and TimyPey by Zong via Askari Bank also launched the branchless banking services.
According to an official statement of the company, a pilot project is underway for which a formal approval has been obtained from State Bank of Pakistan.
An official release said that, Warid Telecom and Bank Alfalah has been working jointly for establishing a branchless baking platform that will offer a range of customized products and services tailored for its customers, institutions, SMEs and the government, but, analysts are of belief that Warid Telecom never planned a branchless operation until past month.
Mr. Munir Faruqi, CEO of Warid Telecom said is a statement that, “The synergistic relationship between Warid Telecom and Bank Alfalah is a natural fit and the launch of Mobile Financial Services is another step in the right direction, where we look forward to using our collective resources and experience to provide further convenience to the Pakistani customer.”
In the mean while Atif Bajwa, CEO Bank Alfalah said, “We are pleased that both companies have been working in conjunction to successfully execute our shared outlook on introducing our branchless banking services. Once launched in the market, we are optimistic that both telecom and banking customers will benefit hugely from the enhanced access and convenience provided by this innovate offering. We will continue to explore joint efforts in order to provide innovative, technology driven value- additional propositions that increase access to financial service and hence reduce the gap between the ‘banked’ and ‘yet-to-be-banked’ in Pakistan.”
Warid Telecom claims that it had largest postpaid subscriber base in Pakistan and more than 1.8 million customers using EDGE and GPRS services on their mobile phones. The cellular operator has been on the forefront in launching various added services int he recent month. It reaches over 7,000 destinations across Pakistan.
