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.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced bank holiday on March 23, 2019 on occasion of Pakistan Day.
In a circular issued by the SBP said that the State Bank of Pakistan would remain closed on March 23, 2019 (Saturday) being public holiday on the occasion of “Pakistan Day” as declared by the Government of Pakistan.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee significantly declined by 61 paisas against US dollar in early trade on Friday.
The dollar is being traded at Rs140.10 in interbank foreign exchange market. The foreign currency market was ended last day at Rs139.49 to the dollar.
Currency experts said that due to high demand for import and corporate payment and coming weekly holidays escalated the pressure.
The latest increase in dollar value was despite the rise in foreign exchange reserves of the country.
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday said that it noticed visually impaired persons find it difficult to recognize and distinguish amongst different Pakistani currency notes.
SBP, for the information of the general public and specifically visually impaired persons, reiterates that Pakistani currency notes have specific features to help the visually impaired persons to identify the genuineness of currency notes and to distinguish between different denominations.
All currency notes of Rs.20 and above contain braille features on its front side that help to determine the denomination of a currency notes. For this purpose, raised dots and small horizontal lines are printed on the left bottom corner just above the banknote serial number.
This feature makes banknote denominations easily distinguishable by rubbing the thumb against these raised features.
The braille features in each denomination appear in this manner: Rs.20 has one line, Rs.50 two lines and Rs.100 has three lines while other higher denomination notes have dots as braille feature. Specifically, Rs.500 has one dot; Rs.1000 two dots, and Rs.5000 three dots.
All braille features on currency notes of all denominations of Rs. 20 & above are printed through Intaglio process, due to which they appear raised and on the front side of the note only.
Thus, a visually impaired person can easily infer the denomination of the banknotes by feeling the raised printing as well as its genuineness.
All Pakistani currency notes have denomination-wise tiered sizing. Each currency note has the same width of 65 mm whereas lengthwise, each banknote is exactly 08 mm longer than the preceding denomination.
Thus the highest denomination banknote of Rs.5000 is 48mm longer than the lowest denomination currency note of Rs.10.
The incorporation of a number of strong security features including braille features in banknotes are aimed at facilitating general public. To create awareness about currency note features among the masses, SBP provided complete details on its website
Moreover, it has launched Videos and a Smartphone application on security features of currency notes which provide information on security features of currency notes both in descriptive and pictorial forms.
It may also be mentioned that 16 field offices of SBP-BSC spread across Pakistan, conduct awareness campaigns all over the country. These sessions are usually arranged in high traffic areas and involve in depth briefing on currency note features.
To augment the awareness of banknote features, SBP has mandated the prominent display through posters containing security features in every commercial bank branch under instructions to guide customers of the currency note features, as required.
The SBP BSC field offices are also arranging special awareness sessions tailored towards the needs of visually impaired persons. These sessions will be organized in collaboration with social welfare organizations/trusts that are dedicated to serving different factions of the general public, especially the visually impaired who are an invaluable part of the Pakistani society.
SBP also urges general public to educate visually impaired persons about features of Pakistani currency notes wherever possible.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee depreciated by five paisas against the US dollar on Thursday due to import and corporate payments.
The rupee ended Rs139.49 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs139.44 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The interbank foreign exchange market was initiated in the range of Rs139.48 and Rs139.50. The market recorded day high of Rs139.50 and low of Rs139.49.
The exchange rate in open market also deteriorated.
The dollar’s buying and selling was recorded at Rs139.70/Rs140.20 as compared with Rs139.30/Rs139.80 in the cash ready market.
The Pakistani Rupee faced a slight depreciation of five paisas against the US Dollar on Wednesday, attributed to increased demand for import and corporate payments.
(more…)KARACHI: The Pak Rupee eased slightly against US dollar in early day trading on Wednesday despite demand for import and corporate payments.
The dollar is being traded at Rs139.40 in interbank foreign exchange market. The foreign currency market was ended at Rs139.39 a day earlier.
Currency experts said that the local currency was under pressure for the last few days due to the government affirmation for new loan negotiation with the IMF.
The experts said that value of the local unit might rebound with the inflows of financial assistance from friendly countries.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday launches a concessionary Small Enterprise Financing and Credit Guarantee Facility for special persons.
Tariq Bajwa, SBP, governor announced this special facility in the 7th meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs held at State Bank of Pakistan.
Members of the Standing Committee and senior executives of State Bank of Pakistan were also present on the occasion.
“Realizing the vulnerability of persons with disabilities in the country and cost associated with their exclusion for the economy, SBP in-line with its priority sector development has devised a scheme for special persons”, said Tariq Bajwa.
This financing facility is expected to improve access to finance for special persons falling under Small Enterprise (SE) category at a concessional rate of 5 percent per annum.
Under the scheme, banks and DFIs will provide financing facilities to special persons for establishing new business enterprises or for expansion of existing businesses.
The SBP will provide refinance to banks/ DFIs up to 100 percent of finance extended by them.
Special persons can avail financing up to Rs1.5 million for a maximum period of 5 years including grace period of 6 months.
SBP will also provide risk coverage of 60 percent to banks/DFIs on their outstanding loans under the scheme. This financing facility has been issued with the main objective of improving the socio-economic life of special persons in Pakistan.
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KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has allowed Standard Chartered Bank, Pakistan to establish local Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) clearing and settlement setup in the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, the central banks said that Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Pakistan can now open CNY accounts of the banks operating in Pakistan to facilitate settlement of CNY based transactions such as remittance to/from China.
SCB can also provide CNY liquidity to the interbank market for the settlement of CNY based transactions.
It may be mentioned here that over the years, the SBP has been at the forefront in providing a conducive policy and regulatory environment to encourage the use of local currencies in trade and financing transactions between China and Pakistan.
Earlier, SBP had also permitted Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) Pakistan in 2015 and Bank of China Limited (BOC) Pakistan in 2018 to establish similar local CNY clearing and settlement mechanism in Pakistan.
The expansion of local CNY clearing and settlement setup in Pakistan is expected to further improve efficiency of the local banking system in transacting in CNY, enhance market liquidity and facilitate rising trade and investment with China through fostering competition and increasing CNY resource avenues.
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KARACHI: The Pak Rupee was remained unchanged against dollar on Tuesday in a range bound trading activity.
The rupee ended at Rs139.39 to the dollar, the same previous day’s closing, in interbank foreign exchange market.
The interbank foreign exchange market was initiated in the range of Rs139.35 and Rs139.40.
The market recorded day high of Rs139.40 and low of Rs139.38 and closed at Rs139.39.
The exchange rate in open market was also remained unchanged.
The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs139.20/Rs139.70, the same previous day’s level, in cash ready market.
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KARACHI: The rupee ended down by 11 paisas against dollar on Monday owing to high demand for import and corporate payments.
The rupee closed at Rs139.39 to the dollar from last Friday’s close of Rs139.28 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The interbank foreign exchange market was initiated in the range of Rs139.30 and Rs139.40.
The market recorded a high of Rs139.40 and low of Rs139.30 and closed at Rs139.39.
Currency experts said that the demand pressure was due to market opened after two weekly holidays.
They said that the narrowed trade deficit and current account deficit would help the rupee to regain some values in coming days.
They further said that the inflows from friendly countries would also help the local unit to gain the values against the greenback.
The exchange rate in open market also witnessed depreciation in rupee value by 20 paisas.
The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs139.20/Rs139.70 as compared with last Saturday’s closing of Rs139.00/Rs139.50 in cash ready market.
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