KARACHI: United Bank Limited (UBL) has partnered with Visa to drive fintech enablement in Pakistan by becoming the first “Visa Ready BIN Sponsor” in the region, a statement said on Tuesday.
This development is a first for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, and third in the CEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, it added.
Visa’s country manager for Pakistan Kamil Khan commented, “Pakistan has a massive pool of fintechs and there is a tremendous potential to accelerate digitisation. As the first partner to offer BIN Sponsorship, UBL can enable the launch of card programmes across non-traditional financial institutions and fintechs in the market bringing to light newer use cases.”
“Visa Ready allows UBL to provide rapid access to Visa’s certified infrastructure, giving fintechs the confidence that payment flows meet local regulations.”
“We are looking forward to seeing a greater number of fintech companies benefitting from this partnership with UBL, as we continue to drive innovation and support the launch of products and solutions that transform the payment experiences of consumers in Pakistan,” he added.
UBL Digital Banking group executive Sharjeel Shahid said, “UBL aims to maintain its lead as the front-runner in the digital-ecosystem by creating an enablement platform for fintechs desirous of entering the market with new use-cases.”
“Our status as a Visa Ready partner is one more step in that direction, where the objective is to create a seamless and fast-track onboarding experience for non-banking players,” he added.
As a certified Visa Ready BIN Sponsor, UBL will offer its BINs that could be used by fintechs, enabling them to build and launch payment solutions that meet Visa’s global standards around security and functionality at a low cost.
Visa created the Visa Ready programme to help reduce the need for fintechs to divert their focus on navigating licencing and payment networks requirements. Traditionally, any institution that needed to issue a payment card in the region used to go through the long process of finding a BIN sponsor.
