Pension Districts of Punjab and how government bankruptcy is partly due to pension and government related jobs and the inefficiency in economy it generates : some reflections
July 27, 2026
Six years ago, roughly 25 million debit cards were in circulation across Pakistan’s banks. Today (Q3 FY26), that number stands at 57.2 million — more than double.
July 27, 2026Mystery of Credit cards data !
For six years, Pakistan’s credit card base barely moved — inching from 1.6 million to 2.2 million between FY20 and FY25.
Then in Q1 FY26 (Jul–Sep 2025), it jumped to 3.1 million in a single quarter — confirmed directly in SBP’s own Payment Systems Quarterly Review — and it wasn’t just a paper number: credit card transactions at ATMs jumped nearly 6x in value the same quarter, so real cards were genuinely being used.
What’s not clear yet is why.
No bank or fintech has publicly announced a credit card push timed to that quarter. If anyone in banking/fintech knows what drove this, I’d genuinely like to hear it.
Data: State Bank of Pakistan Payment Systems Quarterly Review, via the Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics Payment Systems Dashboard —
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