Bank Alfalah, a leading commercial bank in Pakistan, announced the launch of its new mobile banking application, Alfa. New Alfa is purposely curated to promote financial inclusion through digitisation in Pakistan. Alfa is already a well-known transactional banking app that is now transforming itself into a financial lifestyle app offering a comprehensive suite of functionalities for people’s everyday financial and lifestyle needs, ranging from transactional banking to financial lifestyle, by giving people access to savings, investments, payments, borrowing, and onboarding.
The launch event was held at Bank Alfalah’s Digital Lifestyle Branch and was graced by dignitaries from the State Bank of Pakistan, including the Saleem Ullah-Deputy Governor. Senior leadership from Bank Alfalah and key opinion leaders from the digital world were also in attendance, marking a significant milestone in the bank’s commitment to digital innovation. Muhammad Yahya Khan, the Chief Digital Officer of Bank Alfalah, delivered a comprehensive presentation on the new Alfa App, highlighting its numerous innovative features, which included:
Digital Onboarding:
- Open a complete conventional or Islamic bank account without visiting a branch using secure biometric verification.
- View your complete portfolio from deposits to savings and investments to loans—all in one place.
- Activate or block debit-credit cards across channels and adjust app limits instantly.
Payments:
- Schedule automated bill payments for utilities, school fees, loan payments and so on without ever missing a due date.
- Customise your virtual debit card with personal spending limits and expiration dates for secure e-commerce transactions.
- Use secure tokenisation to make seamless, contactless payments directly without carrying a physical card.
Borrowing:
- Access quick loans up to PKR 750,000 instantly
- Purchase products with a payment plan of Buy Now Pay Later via AlfaMall.
- Apply for and receive a credit card instantly.
Save and Investment:
- Save and invest funds into term deposit receipts via the app, offering conventional and Islamic banking options to earn profit from your balances.
- Invest in mutual funds, securities, Pakistan Investment Bonds, and treasury bills instantly.
- Open digital accounts in USD, GBP, EUR, and AED, and seamlessly convert currencies online between your accounts.
At the introductory event, the bank introduced Pakistan’s first fully digital, instant-processing Cheque Deposit Kiosk (CDK). This device offers customers an immediate cheque clearing service. Created by the bank’s own technologists and data scientists, the CDK uses sophisticated technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), biometrics, cryptography, and machine learning to digitally accept, scan, and process cheques at any time, specifically for Bank Alfalah accounts.
With this advancement, the bank plans to shift a large portion of manual teller operations to a secure, automated digital platform that operates continuously. Small businesses are likely to embrace this new system, just as they did with the bank’s Cash Deposit Machines, which now handle over Rs. 500 billion in transactions each year.
