Fawad Abdul Kader

banking and payments professional

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Fawad Abdul Kader is a banking and payments professional born in Karachi. He was head of product for MCB Lite and product head for branchless banking at Bank Alfalah. Paymob approached him to lead its entry into Pakistan.

Early life and background

Fawad Abdul Kader was born in Karachi. He belonged to a middle class family and was the youngest child in his family. He attended a family school. He opened his first bank account at 19, and he says his father being a banker is why he opened it. [1]

Education

Abdul Kader did his university studies at an institute in Karachi. He completed a computer science degree. [1]

Teaching and early career

After graduating, Abdul Kader wanted to teach, and he taught for about four years. He taught tuitions, school classes and graduate level IT courses. He says he enjoyed teaching IT. Some friends call him a professor. [1]

He says family expectations pointed him toward the corporate world, and he wanted to avoid going into it. His wife found a job advertisement in the newspaper and told him about it. A company was hiring customer care executives for its expanding Karachi offices, and he went to a walk-in hiring round where about 500 people were waiting outside. He says communication and convincing people were his strengths. He stayed at that company for four months. [1]

Call centre roles at Bank Alfalah and ABN AMRO

Abdul Kader joined Bank Alfalah as a phone banking officer in its call centre. His father saw his joining a bank as a proud moment. He spent about a year at Bank Alfalah before moving to ABN AMRO, where he started as a call centre executive and later became supervisor. He stayed at ABN AMRO for two years. [1]

Dubai

Abdul Kader moved to Dubai alone, planning to bring his family later. His mother died around the time he went to Dubai. He could not move his family to Dubai, and he felt it was best to remain with the family. He was jobless for two months. [1]

MCB

Abdul Kader joined MCB in 2006 as a call centre supervisor. He became training manager at MCB's call centre. He diverted MCB's calls from Karachi to Lahore within four days. He then set up an MCB call centre in Lahore within three months. [1]

He says he found he could also manage projects and programmes. He became head of product for MCB Lite, MCB's branchless banking wallet. MCB was a leader in digital wallets at the time, with a Visa debit card attached. He says MCB probably missed a trick by not marketing MCB Lite at that time, and he says a product is only as good as its distribution. After MCB Lite he wanted to sell bank accounts at retail stores. [1]

Product head at Bank Alfalah

At Bank Alfalah, Abdul Kader was product head for branchless banking. Bank Alfalah got an arrangement with EOBI for pension digitisation. He left Bank Alfalah in 2017. He left banking to explore digitising payments, a new area for him. [1]

Consulting and account-based payments

Abdul Kader was pulled in through a consulting firm to lead National Savings' digitisation project. He received a job offer while he was doing consulting, but he wanted to complete the consulting assignment first. After his consulting assignment, he spent around three and a half years at the organisation that had made him the offer. He worked on a complete strategy for account-based payments. He says account-based payments were a first, letting people pay with an account instead of a card. He called the opportunity a great one because it was greenfield. [1]

Paymob

Paymob approached Abdul Kader and asked him to lead its entry into Pakistan. He says Paymob's track record gave him confidence and did not scare him. He describes Paymob as an omni-channel platform whose product suite digitises payments for any business that collects or makes payments. Paymob calls itself a payments distribution company, and he says it will be a support system, the infrastructure layer and the technology layer. [1]

Paymob provides an SDK for mobile apps. Merchants contact Paymob to go live. Paymob has separate SME, enterprise and POS sales teams. Abdul Kader says the State Bank has issued guidelines on digital merchant onboarding. He says Paymob wants merchants to register for an NTN for tax filing. [1]

Abdul Kader distinguishes merchant fraud from customer fraud. Paymob monitors merchants' transactions after they go live. It can de-plug merchants after reviewing their transactions and customer complaints. [1]

Paymob has a strategic partnership with Bank Alfalah. Card payments reach merchants in about 48 hours. Account and wallet payments reach merchants the next day. Abdul Kader says Paymob checks each transaction and responds in 15 to 20 seconds. [1]

Abdul Kader says Paymob charges merchants a per-transaction fee only. He says its objective is to pay merchants early, not to hold their money, and that it has enabled its merchants to pay out as well. He says Paymob's customer is the merchant, not the merchant's supplier. [1]

Paymob aims to give a machine free if it can recover its cost within six months. Abdul Kader describes the POS machine as a smart device, like an Android phone. He says Paymob is connecting buy now, pay later services. [1]

Views on payments and inclusion

Abdul Kader defines digitisation as being able to use funds digitally whenever you want. He says financial inclusion comes first, and digitisation builds on top of it. He estimates about 20 to 25% of Pakistanis are banked, and he says Pakistan's banked share is one of the lowest in South Asia. He says Pakistan has very high teledensity and internet use. [1]

He says QR and card payments will remain separate markets, and that QR should target markets without POS machines. He says Pakistan's POS count does not match its market potential. He says small sole proprietors are the segment that interests him most. [1]

Abdul Kader says he believes Pakistan will be very bright by 2050. He says Pakistan is a very resilient nation by design. He expects Pakistan to be more digitised and financially included by 2050. [1]

Affiliations

Abdul Kader is part of a National E-Commerce Council committee under the Ministry of Commerce. He is also part of the Pakistan Fintech Association. [1]

Timeline

2006
Joined MCB.[1]
2017
Left Bank Alfalah.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2022-12-19 Why Pakistan has less than 1% of merchants digitized Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Fawad Abdul Kader?

Fawad Abdul Kader is a banking and payments professional born in Karachi. He was head of product for MCB Lite and product head for branchless banking at Bank Alfalah. Paymob approached him to lead its entry into Pakistan.[1]

What did Fawad Abdul Kader do at MCB?

Fawad Abdul Kader joined MCB as a call centre supervisor and became training manager at its call centre. He set up an MCB call centre in Lahore within three months. He then became head of product for MCB Lite, MCB's branchless banking wallet.[1]

Where did Fawad Abdul Kader study?

Fawad Abdul Kader did his university studies at an institute in Karachi and completed a computer science degree. After graduating he taught for about four years.[1]

Where is Fawad Abdul Kader from?

Fawad Abdul Kader was born in Karachi. He belonged to a middle class family and was the youngest child in his family.[1]

What is Fawad Abdul Kader's connection to Paymob?

Paymob approached Fawad Abdul Kader and asked him to lead its entry into Pakistan. He says Paymob's track record gave him confidence and did not scare him. He describes Paymob as an omni-channel platform.[1]

When did Fawad Abdul Kader leave Bank Alfalah?

Fawad Abdul Kader left Bank Alfalah in 2017. He left banking to explore digitising payments, a new area for him.[1]

What does Fawad Abdul Kader say about financial inclusion in Pakistan?

Fawad Abdul Kader says financial inclusion comes first, and digitisation builds on top of it. He estimates about 20 to 25% of Pakistanis are banked. He says Pakistan's banked share is one of the lowest in South Asia.[1]

References

  1. Why Pakistan has less than 1% of merchants digitized . Thought Behind Things , 2022-12-19.
Show the source passages (89 statements)
  1. He was born in Karachi. I was born in Karachi.
  2. He belonged to a middle class family. we belong to a family that was like a middle class family
  3. He was the youngest child in his family. since I was the youngest in my family
  4. He attended a family school. Happy Home School. It was it was sort of a family school.
  5. He did his university studies at an institute in Karachi. did my university from an institute that was at that time one of one of the good institutions in Karachi, its name was Petroman.
  6. He completed a computer science degree. So I did my computer science graduation from there.
  7. He wanted to teach and taught for about four years after graduating. Then out of that, I actually wanted to teach. And around four years I did teach.
  8. He taught tuitions, school classes and graduate level IT courses. So I I did tuitions, I I taught in a school, I was teaching graduation level again in IT.
  9. He says he enjoyed teaching IT. So that was something I really enjoyed doing.
  10. He says family expectations pointed him toward the corporate world. the expectation from family is always ke you are into the corporate world
  11. He wanted to avoid going into the corporate world. I wanted to avoid going into the corporate world.
  12. His wife found a job advertisement in the newspaper and told him about it. my wife would mark a job in the newspaper and tell me that these jobs are there out there for interviews
  13. A company was hiring customer care executives for its expanding Karachi offices. This was Cybernet. Achha. They were hiring for customer care executives for their offices that they were expanding in Karachi at that time.
  14. He went to a walk-in interview where about 500 people were waiting outside. So I walked in, there were like 500 people camping outside the office building
  15. He says communication and convincing people were his strengths. Two things which I I I always thought I was good at, communication and convincing people.
  16. He stayed at that company for four months. I was I was there for four months.
  17. He joined Bank Alfalah as a phone banking officer in its call centre. As a call center, as a phone banking officer.
  18. His father saw his joining a bank as a proud moment. And it was like for him, it was a proud moment for his son to work for a bank.
  19. He spent about a year at Bank Alfalah before moving to ABN AMRO. I was there for a year. Okay. And then I moved to ABN AMRO.
  20. At ABN AMRO he started as a call centre executive and later became supervisor. Again, I got there as a call center executive. Later on, I became the supervisor there.
  21. He stayed at ABN AMRO for two years. I was there for two years.
  22. He moved to Dubai alone, planning to bring his family later. I went there alone. The intent was to bring my family in.
  23. His mother died around the time he went to Dubai. when I went to Dubai, my mother just passed away.
  24. He could not move his family to Dubai, and he felt it was best to remain with the family. One, because I'm not able to move my family there. Second, it's best to remain with the family.
  25. He was jobless for two months. So I was jobless for two months.
  26. He joined MCB as a call centre supervisor. I applied there, got into an interview, got there as a supervisor for the call center.
  27. He became training manager at MCB's call centre. I was at the call center, grew there, became the training manager.
  28. He diverted MCB's calls from Karachi to Lahore within four days. So we we actually diverted all the calls in four days from Karachi to Lahore.
  29. He then set up an MCB call centre in Lahore within three months. they asked me if you could set up a call center there. I did that for them for within three months.
  30. He says he found he could also manage projects and programmes. I also realized the the the capability that I had other than communication and convincing people was to manage projects and manage programs.
  31. He became head of product for MCB Lite, MCB's branchless banking wallet. So I became the head of product for MCB Lite, which was MCB Lite was the brand of the branchless banking wallet.
  32. MCB was a leader in digital wallets at the time, with a Visa debit card attached. we were at that time the leaders in the digital wallet space with a Visa debit card attached to it.
  33. He says MCB probably missed a trick by not marketing MCB Lite at that time. we probably missed a trick by not marketing it at that time
  34. He says a product is only as good as its distribution. I always believed that a product is as good as um the distribution that that product gets.
  35. After MCB Lite he wanted to sell bank accounts at retail stores. what I wanted to do was uh at that time was to sell bank accounts at retail stores.
  36. At Bank Alfalah he was product head for branchless banking. so I was the product head at Alfalah uh for branchless banking
  37. Bank Alfalah got an arrangement with EOBI for pension digitisation. we also got into a uh an arrangement with EOBI pension uh digitization
  38. He left Bank Alfalah in 2017. So when I left Alfalah in 2017, we were already in that space for nine years.
  39. He left banking to explore digitising payments, a new area for him. the idea was to actually explore something new where we where we go into digitization uh of payments
  40. He was pulled in through a consulting firm to lead National Savings' digitisation project. So I was pulled in by uh Karan Das and and their consulting firm to actually lead the digitization project for National Savings.
  41. After his consulting assignment, he spent around three and a half years at the organisation that had made him the offer. I was there uh after my consulting assignment for around three and a half years.
  42. He received a job offer while he was doing consulting, but wanted to complete the consulting assignment first. I got this offer from uh NEFT while I was at doing consulting, but I wanted to complete that consulting assignment.
  43. He worked on a complete strategy for account-based payments. we did a complete strategy on uh account-based payments.
  44. He says account-based payments were a first, letting people pay with an account instead of a card. This was the first time that instead of card, you can use your account to pay digitally.
  45. He called the opportunity a great one because it was greenfield. NEFT was again a a great opportunity because it was greenfield, one.
  46. Paymob approached him and asked him to lead its entry into Pakistan. uh Paymob approached me. They wanted ke uh they wanted that they be coming to Pakistan and we want to lead uh we want you to lead.
  47. He says Paymob's track record gave him confidence and did not scare him. So it was it was probably that uh confidence in in what Paymob has done uh that didn't really scare me.
  48. Fawad describes Paymob as an omni-channel platform. we are an omni-channel platform.
  49. Fawad says Paymob's product suite digitises payments for any business that collects or makes payments. the product suite that we have digitizes payments for everyone.
  50. Paymob provides an SDK for mobile apps. Agar koi mobile app hai to aapne usko ek SDK deni hai
  51. Merchants contact Paymob to go live. They need to contact us to take them live.
  52. Paymob has separate SME, enterprise and POS sales teams. We have a SME sales team, we have a enterprise sales team, we have a POS sales.
  53. Fawad says the State Bank has issued guidelines on digital merchant onboarding. State Bank has given some certain guidelines on digital merchant onboarding.
  54. Fawad says Paymob wants merchants to register for an NTN for tax filing. we do want customers to register for NTN as well, right? Because that is important to file taxes.
  55. Fawad distinguishes merchant fraud from customer fraud. there are two kinds of frauds. One is a merchant fraud and one is a customer fraud, right?
  56. Paymob monitors merchants' transactions after they go live. Even after uh we take him live, we keep monitoring the transactions that he is doing
  57. Paymob can de-plug merchants after reviewing their transactions and customer complaints. the level of customer complaints coming on this, so that you can de-plug any merchant
  58. Paymob has a strategic partnership with Bank Alfalah. So we have a very strategic partner partnership with Bank Alfalah right now.
  59. Card payments reach merchants in about 48 hours. it takes around for card payments, it takes around 48 hours.
  60. Account and wallet payments reach merchants the next day. For uh the uh account-based, wallet-based other payments, it it's the next day.
  61. Fawad says Paymob checks each transaction and responds in 15 to 20 seconds. everything is checked uh within 15 seconds, 20 seconds and you get a response.
  62. Fawad says Paymob charges merchants a per-transaction fee only. We charge them a per transaction uh charge and that's it.
  63. Fawad says Paymob's objective is to pay merchants early, not to hold their money. Our our objective is not to hold the money.
  64. Fawad says Paymob has enabled its merchants to pay out as well. for all of our merchants, we have enabled them to also pay out.
  65. Fawad says Paymob's customer is the merchant, not the merchant's supplier. He does not need to register with us. He is not our customer. Our customer is the merchant.
  66. Paymob aims to give a machine free if it can recover its cost within six months. agar hum 6 mahine mein apni cost recover kar sakte hain to give the machine
  67. Fawad describes the POS machine as a smart device, like an Android phone. It's just like your Android smartphone.
  68. Fawad says Paymob is connecting buy now, pay later services. We are even connecting right now buy now pay laters.
  69. Fawad says QR and card payments will remain separate markets. QR ki hamesha separate rahegi aur card ki hamesha separate rahegi
  70. Fawad says QR should target markets without POS machines. QR has to be introduced in markets which which which do not have POS machines.
  71. Fawad says Pakistan's POS count does not match its market potential. the number of POS machines of Pakistan is just not it does not justify uh according to the potential.
  72. Paymob calls itself a payments distribution company. we we call ourselves a payments distribution company.
  73. Fawad says Paymob will be a support system, the infrastructure layer and the technology layer. We are going to be their support system, the infrastructure layer, the technology layer
  74. He joined MCB in 2006. I remember when I joined MCB in 2006, uh internet banking was the buzzword.
  75. He is part of a National E-Commerce Council committee under the Ministry of Commerce. I'm part of uh a committee that was National E-Commerce Council under Ministry of Commerce.
  76. He is part of the Pakistan Fintech Association. I'm part of Pakistan Fintech Association and I'm part of different such forums
  77. Fawad says he believes Pakistan will be very bright by 2050. So I believe 2050 is very bright for Pakistan.
  78. Fawad says Pakistan is a very resilient nation by design. we are a very resilient nation by design.
  79. Fawad expects Pakistan to be more digitised and financially included by 2050. it would be a much more digitized Pakistan, one, a much more financially included
  80. Fawad defines digitisation as being able to use funds digitally whenever you want. Digitized is when you're able to use those funds digitally whenever you want it.
  81. Fawad says financial inclusion comes first, and digitisation builds on top of it. So digitization comes on top of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is the first step.
  82. Fawad estimates about 20 to 25% of Pakistanis are banked. but still we are around 20-25% banked population.
  83. Fawad says Pakistan's banked share is one of the lowest in South Asia. that's in in my understanding is one of the lowest in South Asia.
  84. Fawad says Pakistan has very high teledensity and internet use. we have very high teledensity and uh even higher usage of internet.
  85. He opened his first bank account at 19. I opened my first account when I was 19.
  86. He says his father being a banker is why he opened his first account. if my father wasn't a banker, I wouldn't have opened it.
  87. He opened the account when he moved to Karachi for university, because money had to be moved. I opened it at the time because I had um I'd just gone to Karachi for university and money had to be moved.
  88. Some friends call him a professor. Some of my friends call me a professor for that reason.
  89. Fawad says small sole proprietors are the segment that interests him most. Mere liye sabse bada jo interest hai woh hai chhota, sole proprietor