Visa & UBL joins hands to provide banking facilities to IDPs

Picture shows Mr. Amer Pasha (2nd from left) Country Manager Pakistan & Afghanistan Visa Inc. and Mr. Atif R. Bokhari (2nd from right), President & CEO UBL exchanging documents after signing the agreement. Also seen in the picture are Mr. Muhammad Asif Durrani (1st from left), Business Development Manager Visa Inc. and Mr. Aameer Karachiwalla (1st from right), GE Retail Bank UBL

Visa, a leading payment solutions provider and UBL one of the country’s largest private commercial banks today signed an agreement for the deployment of electronic Point of Sale (POS) machines at designated places in the northern areas of the country which include D.I Khan, Mardan, Mingora, Batkhela and Peshawar.

More than 200 POS machines, provided by Visa Inc. as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility program, will be deployed across UBL’s extensive merchant network, enabling internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Swat and Malakand Divisions to use them to buy food supplies and items of daily use.

Present at the signing ceremony were Mr. Amer Pasha, Country Manager Visa Inc, Mr. Atif R. Bokhari, President & CEO UBL, executives of UBL, guests from the banking industry and representatives of print and electronic media.

After an initial distribution of 404,675 Visa cards under the program, NADRA and UBL extended card availability to a total of 1.4 million families in the region. At the same time, UBL and Visa have installed point-of-sale (POS) terminals at retail stores providing convenient and ready access to cash to the IDPs.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Amer Pasha, Country Manager Visa said “Being a socially responsible company, Visa is fully committed to the well being of every individual in every country where it operates. By installing the POS terminals and providing IDPs with Wallet Visa debit cards, with the collaboration of UBL and NADRA, we have brought convenience to IDPs whilst ensuring safety of their funds. Carrying Wallet Visa debit cards, is safer than carrying cash – yet it provides the same benefits that cash and checks do at no additional cost.”

“We are grateful to our partners NADRA and UBL for providing the extensive logistical support and putting the entire infrastructure in place within a matter of weeks for distributing hundreds of thousands of cards to the IDPs in a transparent and efficient manner” he further added.

Also speaking on the occasion, Mr. Atif R. Bokhari, President & CEO UBL said “In parts of the country and in social strata where bank accounts were seldom maintained, we have now created over 427,498 new bank account-holders who would, in the short term benefit from the financial aid which has been routed through their accounts. In the mid- to long-term this will open up many new avenues for these people to obtain bank financing from UBL in order to meet their business and personal needs.”

Wallet Visa Debit Cards not only deliver a heightened level of convenience and security expected of a Visa product, including the facility to pay for purchase of goods and services and receive itemized bank statements covering all financial transactions carried out, they will also enable cardholders in managing their daily spend better.

In addition to providing technological support and POS machines, Visa, as part of their financial literacy programs across the globe, is planning to run an educational campaign for IDPs in the northern areas of Pakistan within the deployment timeframe of the POS. Visa will also be distributing an educational brochure showing step by step how to use Visa cards at ATM and at POS machines, apart from running a radio campaign to support the educational cycle explaining the tools and benefits that come with Visa Debit cards.

Tags: Business