. along with the tremendous growth in the branchless banking sector, the infrastructure of payment systems and branch network is also showing an increasing growth trend. the atms network has increased to 6, 232 whereas branch network has reached 11, 600. 94 percent of our branches are now real time on - line. similarly, the number of plastic cards has increased to 20 million and the number of pos machines has increased to 34, 000 units. this is a significant achievement, and this also demonstrates the opportunity to bring the benefits of this infrastructure to millions of the unbanked population. branchless banking has also proved to be an effective instrument in channelizing the government to persons ( g2p ) payments in trying times like serving internally displaced persons ( idps ), and devastating floods for the last two years. the benazir income support programme beneficiaries are also being served effectively through the same mechanism. in the coming days, this channel is expected to continue playing an important role towards the promotion of financial inclusion and the management of government to person ( g2p ) programs like salaries disbursements, pensions, bisp, watan cards, pakistan cards and tax collections services, etc. the existing branchless banking deployments can cater to the needs of over 10 million potential beneficiaries of g2p payments in pakistan. branchless banking is going to dominate the retail banking landscape in the long - term. whilst we seek to encourage the introduction of innovative instruments for payments, we also need to ensure that high levels of standards are maintained for safety, security and protection of consumers ’ interests. the central policy objectives of sbp are to ensure safety, soundness and efficiency of the banking system, and to protect the interest of consumers. since branchless banking is becoming a vital component of the national payment grid, it is prudent for all stakeholders to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to mitigate inherent risks associated with it like access by un - authorized persons / criminals such as hackers, money launderer, terrorist financiers etc. this can only be achieved when our technologies are robust and secured, and agents are comprehensively trained and effectively monitored by the banks. in this regard, the importance of a comprehensive agent development framework cannot be ignored. i am sure that our banks would not simply jump on the bandwagon without sufficient agent development mechanisms including their hiring, on - going training and monitoring. bis central bankers ’ speeches building public confidence on

branchless banking and payment system operators and service providers. right now, we are in the final stage of issuing regulations for e - money institutions. sbp is cognizant of the fact that fintechs may find certain regulations as inhibiting for their offering so we are in the process of establishing a regulatory sandbox to identify such issues and find ways of supporting and facilitating innovative ideas. ladies and gentlemen! 13. i am confident that the challenges that i have mentioned earlier will provide great opportunity and space to banks like telenor and companies like ant financials, who have great experience of transforming payments and banking landscape in china thus promoting digitization and financial inclusion. i am hopeful that based on its experience, ant financial will provide out of the box solutions for challenges being faced by the industry and consumers in pakistan. especially i expect that ant financials will bring innovative ideas to pakistan especially to assist sbp in areas like financial inclusion, digitization of payments, e - commerce, sme finance, increasing access points, partnerships with non - bank fintechs and using innovative technologies further to bring efficiency in banking and payments. 14. for my colleagues from banking industry in pakistan, i would like to say that we have to adapt to the changing realities of times. we shall take the challenge and use the opportunities provided by technology to deliver the best of best to our citizens. i expect that the financial sector will take advantage of page 9 of 10 current favorable market environment by investing in innovative technologies and product offerings to expand services and broaden access to financial services in the country. 15. i would once again like to congratulate telenor microfinance bank and ant financial for launching this initiative to facilitate cross border remittances. i am confident that ant financials will play its role in the economic development of pakistan and would further strengthen sino pak ties in the fields of banking, finance and payments. i shall ensure that state bank of pakistan would continue to extend possible support to facilitate them. thank you for your attention! pakistan zindabad. * * * * * page 10 of 10