. the act also gives necessary legal coverage to prism. sbp is also framing the requisite rules and regulations for the smooth operations and participation in prism. progress in electronic payment systems there has been substantial improvement in the payment system infrastructure and consumers ’ payment patterns over the last few years, particularly in urban areas, which is evident from the exponential growth in automated teller machines ( atm ) cards, debit & credit cards, atm outlets, points of sales ( pos ) accepting payments through cards and number of online branches of commercial banks providing swift intra bank account to account funds transfer facilities and the interconnectivity of the two atm switches viz. the mnet and 1 - link. with the strategic focus of sbp to develop a well functioning and efficient payment system in the country coupled with rapid technological changes, the pace of growth in payment system infrastructure will further accelerate in the medium term and its outreach will extend to even smaller towns. this will enable a larger number of consumers to use the enhanced and extended payment system infrastructure, and will bring greater efficiency and cost effectiveness in the system. figure 5. 1 : growth online branches network the online branch network is also expanding at a fast pace and reached to 3, 265 at the end of dec 2005 from 2, 475 at the end of the preceding year, indicating an impressive increase of 32 percent or 790 branches. the addition of 315 branches into the online network in the fourth quarter is signalling further acceleration in the pace of growth of the online branches. the coverage of online branches as a percentage of total branches ( 7, 245 branches ) has now reached 45 percent. at this pace, the whole branches network of the banking system will be online in the very near future, which will substantially improve efficiency of the payment system. point of sale transactions usage of cards at pos is expanding with the passage of time. this channel recorded remarkable growth of 62 percent in number of transactions, to 13 million transactions in fy05 from 8 million in the previous year. value of transactions grew by 56 percent to rs 42. 8 billion in fy05 from rs27. 4 billion in fy04. figure 5. 3 : number of cardholders conclusion the gtb concept though newer to pakistani banks, will help service the ever growing need for pakistan ’ s trade & finance and facilitate investors ’ awareness to the growing pakistani economy & markets. we see inter - exchanges like this to further strengthen the transaction banking business in pakistan. sbp is

conscious of the need to further strengthen the payments & settlement systems in pakistan to reduce inherent settlement risks and bringing efficiency to the financial system. we look forward to global entities, like deutsche bank, in performing their due role to facilitate providing awareness & expertise to further strengthen the financial system. gtb will help in providing fully integrated risk mitigation, settlement, financing and information solutions, which help unlock working capital trapped in inefficient order - to - cash and purchase - to - pay cycles. it will also assist businesses to achieve greater integration of the supply chain, which facilitates greater efficiencies and streamlined workflows, whilst reducing operating costs and accelerating payment cycles. more efficient trade processes also mitigate risk exposure and help the businesses optimise returns from trade assets.