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Category: Money & Banking

Money and banking drive economic activity by facilitating transactions, savings, and investments. Banks manage financial resources, offer credit, and regulate money supply, ensuring stability and growth in Pakistan’s financial sector.

  • Meezan Bank to launch digital payments using Haball platform

    Meezan Bank to launch digital payments using Haball platform

    KARACHI: Haball, Pakistan’s leading B2B payments automation platform, in partnership with Meezan Bank – Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank, has recently announced the launch of Blink Direct, a service that will enable digital payments for Pakistani businesses and their supply chain partners.

    The new service will accelerate digital payments to payees while completely removing the friction caused by manual reconciliation errors. Meezan Bank customers will be able to link their bank accounts with the Haball App directly for performing transactions while reaping the benefits of a cashless supply chain, a statement said on Thursday.

    The Blink Direct facility, will allow Haball to address the challenge of delays in invoice reconciliation; an issue that plagues many large and small businesses, and causes payment delays as a result of which the working capital of the business is not managed efficiently.

    The service also maps each payment, invoice, pay order etc. to the context of why a payment was initiated.

    This allows corporate and distributors to reconcile their invoices and payments automatically, reducing errors and time required to reconcile every payment.

    Meezan Bank is the first bank in Pakistan to enable paperless digital payments for businesses using the Haball platform.

    Blink Direct is now available as a standard offering in the Haball App and Platform suite, eliminating manual payments and offering businesses greater transparency for the entire value chain including retailers, distributors and corporate entities.

    Omer Bin Ahsan, CEO – Haball commented on the occasion, “Blink Direct enables money to move digitally throughout the supply chain in the fastest and most reliable manner.

    “Haball has naturally progressed towards aggregating multiple payment options available in the country to give customers the freedom to transact through whichever medium they prefer, whether through their bank’s existing channel, through Haball’s App or through branches and agent networks.”

    Ariful Islam, Deputy CEO – Meezan Bank said: “By extending direct payment services to its customers using Haball, Meezan Bank is delighted to be able to solve the problems currently faced by many companies – needless roadblocks in the payments value chain and provide seamless and integrated digital payment services to enable a cashless supply chain.

    “We are very excited to be part of this innovation and are confident Inshallah that the supply chain vertical will soon benefit from the value of digital payment solutions.”

  • Rupee gains 18 paisas on improved inflows

    Rupee gains 18 paisas on improved inflows

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained 18 paisas against dollar on Thursday owing to improved inflows of export receipts and workers’ remittances.

    The rupee ended at Rs166.58 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs166.76 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency experts said that the lowering demand for import and corporate payments and improved inflows helped the rupee to make gain.

    They said that the import bill of the country massively reduced during the fiscal year 2019/2020.

    According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) the import bill of the country fell by 18.6 percent to $44.57 billion as compared with $54.76 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

    This helped the country to curtail the trade deficit for the year. The trade deficit of the country shrank by 27 percent to $23.18 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with the deficit of $31.8 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

  • SBP revises banking timings from July 13

    SBP revises banking timings from July 13

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday revised timings for banks and microfinance banks to be observed from July 13, 2020.

    The central bank said that effective from July 13, 2020, the banks/MFBs shall observe the following office timings till further orders.

    However, banks/MFBs may prescribe business hours for branches as per their business requirement subject to observance of SBP business (banking) hours for public dealings as notified vide BPRD Circular Letter No. 20 dated April 23, 2020.

    The timings shall be:

    Monday to Thursday: 09:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (with prayer / lunch break from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.)

    Friday: 09:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (with prayer / lunch break from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.)

    The SBP said that all banks / MFBs are accordingly advised to ensure compliance of the above-mentioned timings in letter and spirit.

  • SBP asks banks not to accept institutional investment in saving schemes

    SBP asks banks not to accept institutional investment in saving schemes

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday informed banks about restriction imposed on institutional investment in saving schemes.

    The central bank said that the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) on July 01, 2020 restricted participation of institutional investors in national saving schemes.

    In this connection, the SBP advised all authorized commercial banks to review the instructions contained in the above mentioned letters and ensure that no institutional investment of any kind should be accepted in National Savings Schemes (NSS) dealt by banks i.e. Special Savings Certificate (SSC) / Defence Savings Certificate (DSC) on or after July 01, 2020.

    The SBP asked the banks to disseminate necessary instructions down the line to all authorized branches and concerned officials for information and strict compliance.

  • Pak Qatar Family Takaful to offer products, services through digital media

    Pak Qatar Family Takaful to offer products, services through digital media

    KARACHI: Pak-Qatar Takaful Group has decided to use digital media to offer its products and services in the wake of COVID-19 in order to provide the best possible convenience to its valuable members and customers.

    (more…)
  • Rupee gains 19 paisas in interbank

    Rupee gains 19 paisas in interbank

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained 19 paisas against dollar on Wednesday owing to improved inflows of export receipts, dealers said.

    The rupee ended Rs166.76 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs166.95 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency experts said that during the past few days the demand for dollar was on the higher side resulting in ease in rupee value.

    They further said that the inflows of export receipts and from international financial institutions had helped the rupee to gain the value.

  • SBP slashes refinance rate to five percent for temporary, long term schemes

    SBP slashes refinance rate to five percent for temporary, long term schemes

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to reduce the mark up rates on temporary economic refinance facility (TERF) to five percent from 7 percent and on long term financing facility (LTFF) from non-textile sector to five percent from six percent.

    The central bank on Wednesday said that taking cognizance of the negative fallout of COVID-19 Pandemic for the economy, SBP has been constantly taking steps to safeguard the businesses and households and a reduction in the policy rate has been a key step since March 2020.

    SBP has reduced the policy rate by 625 basis points since 17th March, 2020 to 7 percent.

    To extend the benefits of this reduction in the policy rate to the users of its refinance schemes, SBP has now decided to align the end user markup rates on two of its refinance schemes for promoting investment in the country.

    Temporary Economic Refinance Facility (TERF): SBP introduced this facility to provide stimulus to the economy by supporting new investment and balancing, modernization and restructuring (BMR) of the existing projects.

    To further improve the incentive under the scheme, SBP has lowered the end user mark-up rates from existing 7 percent to 5 percent.

    SBP will now be providing refinance to banks at 1 percent with banks’ maximum margin of 4 percent. Further, SBP has also allowed the TERF facility in cases where LCs/Inland LCs were opened prior, but retiring after the introduction of the scheme on March 17, 220.

    These measures, in the backdrop of earlier policy action of allowing BMR under TERF, are expected to further support the economic activity, new long term investment and employment generation.

    Under this scheme, up till 2nd July 2020, Rs10.5 billion have been approved by banks for 21 projects.

    Long Term Financing Facility (LTFF): LTFF is one of the oldest refinance schemes of SBP under which financing is available for export-oriented projects for purchase of imported and locally manufactured new plant and machinery.

    In March, 2020 SBP opened the LTFF to all sectors across the board. Earlier the end user markup rate under this scheme were 5 percent for textile sector and 6 percent for non-textile sectors.

    State Bank has now reduced its refinance rate for non-textile sector by 1 percent and therefore the end user rate for all sectors across the board will be 5 percent.

    It is expected that the above measures will help facilitate long term investment in both domestic and export market.

  • SBP appoints 12 primary dealers for government securities

    SBP appoints 12 primary dealers for government securities

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has appointed 12 financial institutions as primary dealers for government securities for the fiscal year 2020/2021.

    The central bank said that applications were invited for selection of primary dealers for the Financial Year (FY) 2020-2021 vide DMMD Circular Letter No. 01 dated May 15, 2020 from all Banks, Development Finance Institutions, Investment Banks and Listed Brokerage Houses.

    The central bank received twelve applications for appointment of Primary Dealers of Government Securities (PIB & MTB).

    Upon evaluation of each applicant’s performance under the criteria laid down in the aforesaid rules, the following institutions have been selected as Primary Dealers of Government Securities (PIBs & MTBs) for FY 2020-2021

    1. HABIB BANK LIMITED

    2. NATIONAL BANK OF PAKISTAN

    3. BANK AL-FALAH LIMITED

    4. JS BANK LIMITED

    5. ALLIED BANK LIMITED

    6. PAK OMAN INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED

    7. MCB BANK LIMITED

    8. UNITED BANK LIMITED

    9. FAYSAL BANK LIMITED

    10. STANDARD CHARTERED BANK (PAKISTAN) LIMITED

    11. CITI BANK N.A (PAKISTAN OPEARTIONS)

    12. THE BANK OF PUNJAB

    Top three performing PDs during FY 2019-2020 are as under:

    Habib Bank Limited

    National Bank of Pakistan

    Bank Al-Falah Limited

  • Bank deposits reach record high at Rs16.23 trillion

    Bank deposits reach record high at Rs16.23 trillion

    KARACHI: The deposits of banking systems have reached record high at Rs16.23 trillion by end of June 30, 2020, according to data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday.

    The deposits of baking system registered 12.24 percent growth by end of June 2020 as compared with Rs14.46 trillion by end of same month last year.

    Analysts at Topline Securities explained that during second quarter of 2020, the deposits have increased by higher-than-largely-expected 7 percent, as Net Domestic Assets (NDA) of the Banking System increased by 6 percent during this period, on the back of 11 percent increase in the government borrowings for budgetary support.

    Investments have grown by 40 percent YoY and 3 percent MoM to Rs10.68 trillion by end June 2020. The same is up 21 percent YTD (vs. 6 percent YTD growth by end March 2020).

    As a result, IDR has increased to 66 percent in June 2020 from 53 percent in June 2019 and 61 percent in March 2020.

    On the other hand, Advances have grown by just 1 percent YoY, and have actually declined by 2 percent MoM in June 2020 despite the aggressive cuts in interest rates by the Pakistan Central Bank since March 2020.

    This is due to the impact of the pandemic COVID-19, which has caused the overall slowdown in the economic activity. In YTD 2020, advances are up 1 percent.

    As a result, ADR has dropped to 51 percent in Jun-2020 from 56 percent in Jun-2019 and 55 percent in March 2020.

    The Currency in Circulation (CIC) has increased by 17 percent in YTD 2020 to Rs6.19 trillion, with CIC as a percentage of M2 clocking in at 31 percent, above past 5-year average of 27 percent.

    Going forward, the analysts expect deposit growth in the range of 10-11 percent during 2020 (vs. historical 3-year average growth of 11 percent), while they expect advances to grow by around 5 percent during the year (vs. historical average 3-year growth of 14 percent).

  • SBP extends deferment of principal amount facility till September 30

    SBP extends deferment of principal amount facility till September 30

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to extend the deferment of principal amount facility up till September 30, 2020, a statement said on Tuesday.

    The central bank said that considering the fact that COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to stress the cash flow of small and medium sized businesses and households, SBP has decided to extend the Deferment of Principal Amount facility up till September 30, 2020.

    This facility will however be available for Small & Medium Enterprise Financing, Consumer Financing, Housing Finance, Agriculture Finance and Micro financing only.

    The facility is not being extended to corporates and commercial borrowers since a significant amount of their loans and advances has already been deferred.

    It is expected that more businesses and households, who were not able to avail the facility, will benefit from this extension.

    On March 26, 2020, amid growing concerns about the potential economic impact of the COVID–19 pandemic, SBP with the collaboration of Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) announced a comprehensive set of measures to help businesses and households to manage their finances.

    Among these, a key measure was the deferment of principal amount of loans and advances by banks and DFIs.

    Under this facility, businesses and households could request for the deferment of their loans and advances for a period of one year, albeit continuing to service the mark-up amount.

    The measure also ensured that the deferment of principal will not affect borrower’s credit history and such facilities will not be reported as restructured/rescheduled in the credit bureau’s data.

    This measure proved extremely helpful for borrowers and is evident from the fact that up till 3rd July 2020, banks deferred Rs593 billion of principal amount of loans of over 359 thousand borrowers.

    A very large number of borrowers— 95 percent of total beneficiaries of this scheme, as of July 3, 2020 have been small borrowers including SMEs, consumer finance, and microfinance.