Opportunity for mobile application developers in banking sector of pakistan.

I was making some efforts to find info on banking sector in pakistan. Apart from what i was looking for, i came across a very good piece of info, while browsing through archives of The News:

Mobile phone banking to start in 2006 (Story as of March):

Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Dr Ishrat Hussain announced on Thursday that mobile banking would start in 2006 and cost of each banking transaction would be Rs5 only. Inaugurating NIFT-e-Trust here at a local hotel, he said from 2006 all branches of commercial banks would be made online initiating the mobile banking era. According to him, before the start of ATM the cost of clearing each cheque was Rs20 and "currently ATM clearing cost is Rs15".

He said with the start of mobile banking the chances of bank robberies would go down automatically and bank customers would be more secure and safe in making banking transactions. He said before the start of this century, there was hardly any ATM service in the country. However, he said there were still dangers of hacking and terrorism like activities and that threat would continue but the banking system should be ready to face these challenges. He was of the view that the banks were making serious efforts to adopt modern technologies.

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2005-daily/20-05-2005/business/b1.htm