Rising ‘Card Not Present’ fraud and the shift to a digital-first economy marks the first of many partnerships to come.

The Pakistani Government aims to achieve US$5 bn in e-commerce sales in the next three years. As a result, it is investing into enhancing e-commerce payment gateways.

However, the country’s rapidly-growing digital payment market also exposes its banks to the risk of Card Not Present (CNP) fraud. This has led to Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank with over 800 branches and presence in more than 240 cities, to partner digital payments tech provider BPC Banking Technologies to upgrade its payment infrastructure.

BPC’s enterprise fraud prevention solution will help the bank to combat CNP fraud by monitoring 100% of transactions online in real-time and across all channels. The solution uses machine learning and neural network models to ensure genuine transactions can pass through, while fraud attempts are identified and blocked at their earliest.

According to the bank’s Group Head of Information Technology and Digital Banking, Faizur Rehman: “Pakistan has seen massive growth in its digital payments market, driven by the shift to go digital during the pandemic. We need to have the right digital payment infrastructure in place to offer new payment experiences to consumers, as well as payment acceptance capabilities to companies. We are confident that by combining the latest technology with our product offering, we can deliver excellent customer experience in this fast-moving landscape.”

Aiming for a Digital-first economy

With an aim to provide frictionless digital banking and payment experience for its customers, the bank will rely on the digitalization solution’s instant routing of payment transactions to manage the authorization of payment transactions in real-time, across all channels. Meezan Bank will also strengthen the delivery of new payment instruments to its customers mainly used upon account opening, while also offering a more secure e-commerce experience.

BPC’s SVP/Managing Director (Middle East, Africa and SE Asia), Angelo Bertini said: “As we increasingly shift to a digital-first economy; payment switches, management of merchant services and fraud prevention have become incredibly important to enable seamless digital transactions. We know flexibility and the ability to scale are paramount to create a solution that can adapt with Pakistan’s electronic payment landscape. We look forward to continuing to support Meezan Bank as it navigates this exciting time in digital payments in Pakistan.”