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.

The growth wasn’t linear. It crept along at ~5-6% a year through FY20-FY23, then jumped sharply in FY24 as banks accelerated issuance alongside branchless banking integration — and it’s kept climbing every single quarter since.

Cards are only half the payments story (RAAST transaction value has grown over 13x in just the last two years), but debit card penetration is the base layer everything else sits on.

Data: State Bank of Pakistan, via the Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics Payment Systems Dashboard —

visit dashboard here :

https://lnkd.in/dVJC4QKd