National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has teamed up with payments infrastructure operator 1LINK to sharpen its internal push toward digital banking. The two organizations held a Digital Banking Activation Session at NBP’s Head Office in Karachi, bringing senior leadership and regional teams together to build stronger internal understanding of Pakistan’s digital payments agenda with a specific focus on driving wider use of NBP debit cards.
Key Takeaways
- What happened: NBP and 1LINK held a Bank Activation Session at NBP’s Head Office in Karachi
- Who attended: Senior leadership from both organizations and NBP’s Karachi Region teams
- Core focus: In-depth training on NBP Debit Card features, benefits, and usage
- Goal: Drive card-based transaction adoption to advance customer convenience and digital payment uptake
- Key NBP speaker: Adnan Nasir, Group Chief Digital Banking
- Key 1LINK speaker: Najeeb Agrawalla, Chief Executive Officer
- Also present: Faisal Ahmed (Group Chief Operations), Zahir Khursheed (Officiating Group Chief Retail Banking Group), Ausaf Ahmed (Acting Group Chief Information Technology)
What the Session Actually Covered
Unlike a customer-facing product launch, this was an internal capacity-building event designed to make sure NBP’s own regional teams are equipped to promote digital payments effectively to customers. The session delivered detailed training on NBP’s debit card suite: its full range of features, customer benefits, and practical usage scenarios, with particular attention to how card-based transactions can improve customer convenience while scaling digital payment adoption more broadly.
Attendees included senior officials from NBP’s Head Office, regional offices, and specifically the Karachi Region Teams — the frontline staff who interact most directly with customers and branch-level banking operations.
What NBP and 1LINK Leadership Said
NBP’s Group Chief Digital Banking, Adnan Nasir, framed the session around the bank’s broader financial inclusion strategy, describing digital payment adoption as central to national economic progress and positioning these activation sessions as the mechanism for translating that strategy into everyday customer experience.
1LINK’s CEO, Najeeb Agrawalla, similarly tied the collaboration to Pakistan’s cashless economy ambitions, describing the NBP partnership as central to advancing the country’s digital payments ecosystem and reaffirming 1LINK’s commitment to building the infrastructure needed to support it.
Why 1LINK’s Involvement Matters
1LINK isn’t just any payments partner it’s Pakistan’s first fully licensed Payment System Operator, Payment Service Provider, and Payment Switch, and the operator behind PayPak, Pakistan’s first and only domestic payment scheme, which made Pakistan the 28th country in the world to have its own domestic card scheme. 1LINK also connects 37 commercial and microfinance banks to major international payment networks including Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay International, and JCB, alongside PayPak itself.
That infrastructure role is what makes this activation session more than a routine internal training event: 1LINK sits at the technical core of how card transactions actually move through Pakistan’s banking system, meaning its direct involvement signals coordinated effort between a major public-sector bank and the country’s central payments switch operator, rather than NBP acting on debit card promotion alone.
Why This Fits Into Pakistan’s Broader Digital Payments Push
This activation session lands squarely within a documented national trend: SBP’s own Payment Systems Quarterly Review for Q3 FY26 found that digital channels now account for 92% of Pakistan’s retail transaction volume, with mobile banking apps alone processing 78% of all digital payments. Card-based transactions and debit card adoption are a meaningful piece of that overall digital payments picture, and internal initiatives like this NBP-1LINK session are part of how individual banks work to keep pace with and help drive that broader national shift.
For NBP specifically, as one of Pakistan’s largest state-owned banks with an extensive branch and customer network, strengthening regional staff understanding of digital products is a practical lever for translating national digitization trends into actual behavior change at the customer level, rather than leaving adoption to organic uptake alone.
Benefits of This Kind of Internal Digital Banking Push
- Better-equipped frontline staff who can explain and promote digital products directly to customers, rather than relying on passive awareness campaigns
- Stronger card-based transaction adoption, supporting Pakistan’s broader shift toward cashless payments
- Coordinated infrastructure and bank-side effort, since 1LINK’s participation ties bank-level promotion directly to the payments infrastructure operator managing the underlying rails
- Support for financial inclusion goals, as digital payment adoption is positioned by both organizations as a foundation for broader economic participation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the NBP-1LINK Digital Banking Activation Session?
An internal training and awareness event held at NBP’s Head Office in Karachi, bringing together senior leadership and regional teams to strengthen understanding of digital payments and drive wider adoption of NBP debit cards.
Who organized the session?
National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), in partnership with 1LINK (Pvt.) Limited, Pakistan’s first fully licensed Payment System Operator, Payment Service Provider, and Payment Switch.
What was the main focus of the session?
In-depth training on NBP Debit Card features, benefits, and usage, with an emphasis on how card-based transactions can drive digital payment adoption at scale.
Who is 1LINK?
1LINK is the operator of PayPak, Pakistan’s first domestic payment scheme, and connects 37 commercial and microfinance banks to international payment networks including Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay International, and JCB.
Is this connected to Pakistan’s broader digital payments growth?
Yes. It aligns with SBP data showing digital channels now handle 92% of Pakistan’s retail transaction volume, with card-based and mobile banking adoption both central to that shift.
