In March 2016, Telenor Group acquired the remaining 49% of Tameer Microfinance Bank, taking its ownership to 100%. The deal brought the bank behind Easypaisa fully into Telenor’s group and was presented as a way to expand digital financial services for Pakistan’s unbanked population. It did not, by itself, make Easypaisa a digital bank.
What did Telenor acquire?
Telenor acquired the remaining 49% shareholding in Tameer Microfinance Bank in March 2016, bringing its ownership to 100%. Telenor’s announcement also said that Telenor Pakistan would transfer Easypaisa management to Tameer. Those were connected changes, but they were not the same thing: Telenor acquired the bank, while Easypaisa management was to sit with that bank.
The announcement did not state the purchase price or detailed financial terms. Contemporaneous coverage reported completion of the transaction and the management transfer, but does not establish a deal value. ProPakistani’s March 17, 2016 report
Why did Telenor buy the remaining stake?
Telenor said full ownership would give it a stronger platform to deliver financial services at scale to Pakistan’s unbanked population and strengthen its position in digitising the country’s financial services. Easypaisa was central to that strategy: Telenor and Tameer had launched the service in 2009 as a digital, branchless-banking service.
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In contemporaneous coverage, Telenor Group Head of Financial Services Tine Wollebekk was quoted as saying: “With the collaboration between Tameer Bank and Telenor, Easypaisa has become a global example of innovation in bringing financial inclusion through mobile.” This is a quotation reproduced in Dawn’s March 18, 2016 report.
What did Easypaisa’s reported reach show?
Tameer’s 2016 annual report said that 21 million previously unbanked Pakistanis used Easypaisa to transfer more than PKR 200 billion during the year. These are the bank’s reported service figures, not an independent measurement of how many people gained lasting access to financial services or of the acquisition’s effect on financial inclusion. The report does not establish that the transaction caused those outcomes. Tameer Microfinance Bank Annual Report 2016
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How did the bank and Easypaisa change after 2016?
2017: Tameer becomes Telenor Microfinance Bank
On March 27, 2017, the State Bank of Pakistan notified that Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited’s name had changed to Telenor Microfinance Bank Limited, effective immediately. The 2017 annual report described the bank as a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor Pakistan B.V. and said its Easypaisa branchless-banking and microfinance-lending businesses operated under the combined entity. State Bank of Pakistan name-change notification; Telenor Microfinance Bank Annual Report 2017
2018: Alipay receives approval for a 45% shareholding
The 2016 purchase should not be confused with a later ownership change. On November 7, 2018, Pakistan’s Competition Commission announced approval for Alipay (Hong Kong) Holding Limited to acquire a 45% shareholding in Telenor Microfinance Bank. That approval came more than two years after Telenor’s acquisition of Tameer. Competition Commission of Pakistan announcement
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2025: The regulator cancels the microfinance-bank license
The State Bank of Pakistan’s notification dated January 28, 2025, states that Telenor Microfinance Bank’s microfinance-bank license was cancelled effective January 23, 2025, following the grant of a Digital Retail Bank License. This later licensing change is separate from Telenor’s 2016 acquisition. State Bank of Pakistan license notification
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened to Easypaisa after Telenor bought Tameer?
Easypaisa began as a service launched by Telenor and Tameer in 2009, and the 2016 announcement said its management would transfer to Tameer. Telenor Group’s current company description says Easypaisa later became an independent mobile financial services company following its 2019 partnership with Ant Financial, received approval as a digital bank in January 2025, and operates separately from the sale of Telenor Pakistan to PTCL. These later developments do not change what the 2016 deal was: Telenor’s acquisition of Tameer’s remaining shares. Telenor Group: Telenor Financial Services
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