Raast is Pakistans first instant payment system that enables end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses, and government entities seamlessly. It is an initiative led by the State Bank of Pakistan, developed with World Bank assistance, and received backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Karandaaz Pakistan. Raast is designed to address some key industry challenges within the payment ecosystem, such as limited interoperability, high cost of digital payments to the end-user, and low-to-no transaction costs for end-users. Raast payments are made through an alias, which is linked to the customers bank account number. A mobile number can become a customers alias, on which payments are directly processed against their linked bank account. This eliminates the need for exchanging lengthy account numbers when making transactions. Raast is available for payments via mobile apps, internet banking, USSD, and branches. Raast is currently activated for only local transfers within Pakistan. Raast is a secure payment system that ensures that each transaction is authorized by the payer and offers enhanced data protection and fraud detection services. Raast fund transfer is free of cost, whereas charges are applicable on other channels such as IBFT.