Easypaisa

Easypaisa Bank Limited, stylized as easypaisa, is a Pakistani digital bank based in Karachi.[1] It provides services such as mobile wallet, mobile payments, and branchless banking.[2][3]

History

Easypaisa was founded in 2009 by Telenor Microfinance Bank as a money transfer service via USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) channels.[4] Telenor Microfinance Bank was originally founded as Tameer Microfinance Bank, which was acquired by Telenor Pakistan in 2008.[5] Later, in 2018, Ant Group acquired a stake in Telenor Microfinance Bank via its subsidiary Ant Financial.[6] In its early years, Easypaisa followed an over-the-counter (OTC) model, users could transact without maintaining a wallet account. By 2011, around 1.3 million customers had conducted 1.9 million transactions worth US$39.2 million in flows.[7] As of 2012, it had processed over 100 million transactions with throughput exceeding US$1.4 billion.[8]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital adoption of financial services increased significantly. By 2020, Easypaisa’s active app user base had grown to around 3.44 million, an increase of approximately 54% compared to the previous year. While its annual transaction value rose by about 64% to reach PKR 1.5 trillion.[9]

By the end of the 2023 financial year, Easypaisa had processed more than 2.1 billion transactions with a total value exceeding PKR 7 trillion. The platform recorded 9.6 million monthly active users, a year-on-year increase of 32%, while its parent company, Telenor Microfinance Bank, reported a user base of over 13 million.[10] In the same period, the service was migrated to a cloud-native platform as part of the bank’s broader digital transformation.

Easypaisa has also played a role in charitable and humanitarian activities. Between June and November 2022, the platform facilitated more than 400,000 donation transactions worth over PKR 100 million, supporting national flood relief efforts.[11]

In January 2023, Easypaisa introduced a debit card service for account holders, issued in collaboration with UnionPay.[12] Two years later, in January 2025, the company received Pakistan’s first digital bank licence from the State Bank of Pakistan and subsequently announced the commencement of commercial operations.[13][14]

See also

• JazzCash