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The Pakistani fintech opportunity map, late 2026
Where the gaps actually are: reconciliation, recurring billing, merchant credit, and the boring infrastructure nobody posts about. With the numbers behind each one.
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Reporting on the markets founders actually build in. Every number is sourced, and where the story is still unsettled we say so rather than guessing.
Apple Pay in Pakistan: what would have to be true for it to launch this yearWorking backwards from a launch to the specific conditions it requires — and an honest assessment of which of them we have evidence for.
A founder's guide to Pakistani payment rails in 2026Raast, PayPak, Visa and Mastercard, JazzCash and Easypaisa, and possibly Apple Pay. What each one is actually good for, and what it costs you to support.
A Pakistani merchant's guide to Apple Pay: what to do nowShort version: almost nothing, and that is the point. Your contactless terminal already handles it. Your real decisions are about QR, fees and reconciliation.
How Apple Pay actually works, and which part Pakistan has to approveTokenisation, device account numbers and the cryptogram — explained without the marketing, with the specific steps that need a Pakistani bank and regulator to sign off.
Apple Pay in Pakistan: a dated timeline of every signal so farWhat was found, when, by whom, and how strong each piece of evidence actually is. Updated as the story moves.
1LINK wants PayPak on every government salary. Should it get it?The August 2026 proposal would move enormous volume onto Pakistan's domestic card scheme by mandate. The industrial logic is sound. The consumer-choice question is real.
What Apple Pay would mean for JazzCash and EasypaisaPakistan's two big wallets did not win by being the best card experience. They won by serving people cards never reached — which is why Apple Pay is not aimed at them.
Is Pakistan NFC-ready? What 125,000 terminals tell youTap-to-pay needs contactless terminals, and Pakistan already has them in the tens of thousands. The hardware is the part that is not missing.
PayPak's 6% problem: a quarter of the cards, a sixteenth of the spendingPakistan's domestic card scheme has scale in issuance and almost none in usage. That single gap explains 1LINK's mandate proposal, the credit-card plan, and why Apple support matters.
Raast by the numbers: the rail that changed Pakistani payments before Apple showed up742 million transactions worth Rs23.27 trillion in one quarter, 2.6 million merchants onboarded, and a state subsidy behind the QR code. Raast is the context for everything else.
What Apple Pay would actually cost Pakistani banksApple does not charge cardholders for Apple Pay. It charges issuers, out of interchange they already earn. In a thin-margin market that is the entire negotiation.
PayPak explained: the domestic card scheme Apple would have to supportPayPak is on more than a quarter of Pakistan's 53 million debit cards and carries about 6% of card spending. Understanding that gap explains most of Pakistani payments.
Apple Pay just launched in India. Here is what that tells PakistanApple Pay went live in India at the end of September 2026 — with one bank, no UPI and no RuPay, after a fight over basis points. Pakistan's launch will look similar.
Apple Pay in Pakistan: what the iOS 27 code actually provesTwo strings in an iOS 27 beta set off a week of Pakistani headlines. Here is precisely what that code establishes, what it does not, and why the difference matters.