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This alliance will enable Silkbank cardholders to shop at several merchants across the country and pay using their loyalty points – without being restricted to a conventional catalogue of redemption options.
In addition to this, Silkbank cardholders will also be able to book Instant Installment Plans at POS terminals and break the cost of big ticket transactions while shopping at selected merchants. Silkbank cardholders will also have the liberty to choose among different tenures to book installment plans for payments in real-time, thus transforming their retail purchase experience.

These initiatives will bring enhanced choices with added convenience to Silkbank customers by leveraging DigitalPass’expertise in digital payments.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Shahram Raza Bakhtiari – Director Retail Banking (Silkbank) said “Silkbank as an institution has always taken pride in providing a top-notch customer service. We are a consumer centric bank and it’s this ethos that drives us every day in our product development and service delivery. We are delighted to have partnered with DigitalPass in this strategic venture and we look forward to taking our customer experience to the next level”.

“This alliance is a testament to our commitment of providing meaningful digital experiences to customers through innovation and simplicity. We hope that partnership with Silkbank will translate into even more value-additions for Silkbank customers in the future” said Mr. Yasum Mirza – Chief Business Officer, Access Group.

Silkbank has been a pioneer in the banking industry, in providing customer-oriented innovative banking services with a futuristic mind-set towards engaging its customers. Moreover Silkbank envisions to set a leading standard with its unique value-added offerings apart from the core banking experience.

DigitalPass, a part of Access Group, is Pakistan’s largest third-party network, and the industry veteran in providing holistic digital experiences and technology solutions to its valued clients.

The strategic partnership will empower U Bank with the ability to transform its banking experience by enabling digital channels for its customers. Through this arrangement, Access Group will develop and provide the technology to offer state-of-the-art digital financial services to U Bank’s customers through Mobile and Internet Banking.

With a drastic change in the way customers bank, digital channels such as Mobile Apps and Internet Banking are emerging as an alternate to conventional banking and play an important role in diversifying the banking experience. U Bank, with its strong customer focus, is looking forward to offering advanced digital channels which will allow users to transfer money, pay their bills and manage their digital wallets and bank accounts on-the-go.

Mr. Kabeer Naqvi, President & CEO, U Bank stated that U Bank believes that access to banking is a basic right that every Pakistani is entitled to. As more customers come in to U Bank family, we are determined to provide them with all types of mediums to access banking services at their convenience. U Bank’s Internet Banking and Mobile App is the first step in serving whole spectrum of our diverse customers scattered around Pakistan.

“We are excited to collaborate with U Bank for enabling new digital channels that would assist U Bank in contributing to financial inclusion of the unbanked population of Pakistan” – said Mr. Imran Qureshi, President – Access Group. “We look forward to leveraging our technology expertise and diversified experience in the industry to make this endeavor a success.”

Access Group is amongst Pakistan’s leading technology solution providers, with offerings including enterprise grade platforms, branchless banking solutions, enterprise loyalty solutions and payment acceptance at various forecourts. Over the years, Access Group has built up one of the largest nationwide support network for servicing its customer spanning over 200 cities, town and villages across Pakistan.

U Microfinance Bank Ltd. (U Bank) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) – Etisalat. The bank has a network of 140 branches in urban and rural areas of Pakistan, offering a wide range of microfinance loans, deposit products and branchless banking solutions. U Bank’s branchless banking offers services under the banner of U Paisa in collaboration with Ufone (Pak Telecom Mobile Limited). The service is offered at nearly 45,000 agent locations across Pakistan.

U Microfinance Bank is proud to be at the front line of fighting poverty in Pakistan and is dedicated to play its critical part in the implementation of National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2020 that aims to bring 50% of Pakistan’s adult population in to banking net.

Convo addresses modern-day communication needs of businesses with innovative technologies directly from Silicon Valley. The high tech platform revolutionizes the way businesses interact altogether – resulting in greater productivity without compromising on organizational privacy and data security.

Convo is used by some of the best brands in the world such as H&M and CNBC for a mission critical solution. Since its launch, Convo has been adding new features to ensure a centralized, effortless and instant team communication and better business control.
The partnership envisions to deliver rich collaboration experience to businesses by giving the power to communicate with ease in the hands of all employees and streamline operations on the go!
“In a time where individuals are exposed to the growing trend of connected devices, Access Group is excited to introduce a globally renowned enterprise collaboration technology that will help businesses in Pakistan to cut costs and become more efficient” Imran Qureshi, President – Access Group.

“We are really excited to work with one of the leading technology companies in Pakistan”, said Osman Rashid, CEO Convo. “By working with Access Group, we believe we can deliver a top-notch collaboration platform to many companies in Pakistan with deep integration with existing IT systems.”

Access Group, being one of the leading technology companies in Pakistan; has been dedicated to offer advanced digital solutions to vast array of businesses and has played a significant role in partnering with global technology players along the journey to bring cutting-edge solutions in Pakistan.

Through this collaboration, businesses in Pakistan will benefit from the power of the Convo platform and Access Group’s expertise in local implementation and support.

With its vision of making digital payments more accessible to people across boundaries, UPI has been leading initiatives across international markets for acceptance of its payment instruments. As an initiative to expand its footprint for NFC & Chip card based payments across Pakistan, UPI is partnering with one of the leading technology & financial services providers in Pakistan – Access Group.

As a result of this arrangement, Access Group will enable acceptance of payments by UnionPay cardholders across its payments network, DigitalPass. DigitalPass is Pakistan’s largest third-party POS network for enabling digital payments at retail and other forecourts including fuel stations, hospitals, grocery, departmental stores, restaurants and transportation, with currently more than 8,000 serviced merchant relationships.

According to Mr. Han Wang, General Manager of UnionPay International Middle East, UnionPay International is committed to making digital payment options accessible to all UnionPay cardholders. This partnership serves as an important milestone towards launching UnionPay innovative payment methods such as UnionPay QuickPass, UnionPay’s contactless feature, in Pakistan.

“Access Group is keen towards paving a way for widely accessible digital payment options for people across the country, while also opening up possibilities for people from international communities to access digital payments,” said Mr. Imran Qureshi, President – Access Group.

To date, UnionPay is already accepted at almost all POS terminals in Pakistan. This partnership will provide UnionPay International the opportunity to introduce innovative payment methods in the future and scale up retail payments throughout the country.

Under this collaboration, DigitalPass will enable digital experiences for Silkbank customers through a nationwide network of merchant alliances and by utilizing its state-of-the-art technology based solutions.

Silkbank has been a pioneer in the banking industry, in providing customer oriented banking services with a futuristic mind-set towards engaging its customers. It envisions to set a leading standard with its unique value added offerings apart from the core banking experience.

DigitalPass, a part of Access Group, is Pakistan’s largest third party network, and the industry veteran in providing holistic digital experiences and technology solutions to its valued clients.

Under this arrangement, Access Group will enable exciting discounts for ABL’s cardholders on more than 100 brand partners in various categories, including but not limited to apparel, eateries, grocery and health & leisure. In addition to this, Access Group will also facilitate ABL to offer exciting campaigns on special occasions for their esteemed cardholders.

“This alliance marks a step forward in our long term relationship with ABL to help them extend value laden services to their customers”, said Mr. Yasum Mirza, Chief Business Officer, Access Group.

“We are pleased to enhance our partnership with Access Group in order to provide better and more rewarding customer experience,” said Mr. Faisal Nadeem Siddiqui, Group Head, Digital Banking Group, Allied Bank Limited.

Allied Bank is one of the largest banks of Pakistan having a large network of 1100+ branches and over 1140 ATMs in Pakistan and offers various technology-based products and services to its diverse clientele.

Under this arrangement, Access Group will provide POS Terminals to UBL which will substantially increase the footprint of UBL’s acquiring business. This will enable UBL to grow its market penetration by expanding the reach of its POS terminal based acquiring network. Access Group will also utilize its 14+ years of expertise in merchant management to service this nationwide acquiring network.

UBL is among the pioneers of acquiring services in Pakistan and has played a pivotal role in enabling retail payment acceptance services in the country. Access Group has been providing services to UBL acquiring network since 2007.

DigitalPass, a part of Access Group, is Pakistan’s largest third-party POS Network and has presence in more than 200 towns and cities nationwide across diverse merchant locations. Access Group greatly values its relationship with UBL and plans to continue this collaboration to increase acceptance of financial products at retail locations across Pakistan.

The ecosystem will offer its coverage in more than 200 towns and cities nationwide, with a capacity to process millions of transactions. DigitalPass is dedicated to digitizing the financial & non-financial transaction landscape in Pakistan.

Access Group has been one of the pioneers of innovative solutions in the Pakistan, providing services to customers including PSO, Mobilink, Engro Foods, UBL, Meezan Bank, MCB, Faysal Bank, Summit Bank, Adamjee Insurance, Honda Atlas Cars, Nixor College, Nike, Metro-Habib Cash & Carry, Liberty Books, Espresso and many others. Over the years, Access Group has successfully provided Branchless Banking Solutions, Fuel Cards Solutions, Enterprise Loyalty Platforms, Acceptance Services via POS Network, Satellite Communications & Point-of-Sale (POS) Solutions by partnering with global companies like Visa, iDirect and Verifone. Access Group recently acquired the ORIX POS Terminal Network to further strengthen its offerings.

With this launch, DigitalPass will utilize state-of-the-art digital and mobile technologies to enable digital experiences for consumers that allow them to experience the power of digital through mobile phones, NFC, cards, e-commerce, social media and various channels, offering convenience and user-friendly experience.

About DigitalPass (www.digitalpass.pk):

DigitalPass offers customizable digital financial solutions including loyalty, prepaid, digital discounts and the largest third-party network for enabling acceptance of its clients payment instruments and products. It leverages Access Group more than 22 years experience in merchant servicing for a vast array of market segments. DigitalPass aims to rapidly expand its network to cover more locations across rural and urban Pakistan.

One such innovative payment method to be promoted under this agreement is JazzCash recently launched near field communication (NFC) payment solution. This technology has gained popularity in both developed and developing markets primarily due to its ability to improve customer experience, security and merchant sales.

The partnership will also assist JazzCash in scaling up merchant payments throughout the country as it looks to serve as a foundation stone towards mobile payment eco system.

In first phase, NFC & USSD payments will be accepted at 500+ retail outlets in Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad. In phase two of the partnership, JazzCash will add QR codes to its financial suite which will enable customers to pay seamlessly by simply scanning the unique QR code. Along with the NFC, USSD and QR code the partnership will cover more than 10,000 retail outlets nationwide.

We believe this alliance will benefit JazzCash users by expansion of our payment acceptance forecourts, while offering them security and convenience. We are pleased to be partnering with Access Group, for enablement of this unique payment service, said Aniqa Afzal Sandhu, VP Digital & Mobile Financial Services Mobilink.

Through this strategic alliance, we aim to open new avenues for JazzCash acceptance via multiple channels in diverse market segments backed by a significant number of merchants who are onboard, said Imran Qureshi, President, Access Group, while expressing his views on this partnership.

It is a proud moment for us at Access Group to be partnering with Pakistan’s leading mobile financial services provider, the further added.