Raast is Pakistan's instant payment system, developed by the State Bank of Pakistan. Work on it began in 2018, with support from Karandaaz Pakistan, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank.
A phased launch
- January 2021Raast goes live with bulk payments, such as dividend payouts.
- February 2022Person-to-person payments launch.
- January to March 2026742.1 million transactions worth PKR 23.3 trillion in a single quarter.
People send and receive money with a Raast ID linked to their mobile number and bank account, so they don't need to share an account number.
How big it is now
Of the 742.1 million Raast transactions in January to March 2026, 664 million were person-to-person payments worth PKR 18.9 trillion. In FY25, Raast's transaction count and value both more than doubled.
Merchant payments on Raast: 36.3M to 55.9M in one quarter.
The merchant frontier
Person-to-merchant payments are the smaller, faster-growing part of Raast. They rose from 36.3 million in October to December 2025 to 55.9 million in January to March 2026. For anyone building checkout, acquiring or merchant tools, that is the number to watch.