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Tag: State Bank of Pakistan

  • SBP makes mandatory for banks to construct ramps for disable persons

    SBP makes mandatory for banks to construct ramps for disable persons

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday made it mandatory for all banks to construct ramps at their branches for persons with disabilities.

    The SBP said it had decided to make it mandatory for all banks/ MFBs/ DFIs to construct ramps at all newly opened and existing place of business (excluding Mobile Banking Units) to make it accessible for persons with disabilities and wheelchair users.

    For the purpose, a 2-year time-bound action plan to construct ramps at your all-existing places of business shall be submitted to SBP by December 31, 2020.

    In addition, a senior level management committee of the respective banks, MFBs and DFIs shall be constituted who will be responsible for monitoring the overall progress on the action plan.

    Further, the quarterly implementation report should be submitted within 15 days after the end of each quarter.

    The SBP further said that instructions issued vide CPD Circular No. 06 of 2014 requiring banks/MFBs to provide visually impaired/blind persons with equitable access to banking and financial services, the banks have also been advised to submit the compliance status by December 31, 2020.

  • SBP directs banks to extend working hours for duty, tax collection

    SBP directs banks to extend working hours for duty, tax collection

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Sunday directed all banks to observe extended working hours to facilitate collection of duty and taxes on Monday November 30, 2020.

    A notification issued by the central bank, stated that in order to facilitate the collection of government receipts / duties / taxes, it has been decided that the field offices of SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC) and authorized branches of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will observe extended banking hours till 9:00 PM on November 30, 2020 (Monday) for which purpose a special clearing has been arranged at 6:00 P.M. on the same day by the NIFT.

    All banks are, therefore, advised to keep their concerned branches open on November 30, 2020 (Monday) till such time that is necessary to facilitate the special clearing for Government transactions by the NIFT.

  • Country’s weekly foreign exchange reserves increase by $467 million

    Country’s weekly foreign exchange reserves increase by $467 million

    KARACHI: The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country have increased by $467 million to $20.552 billion by week ended November 20, 2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

    The foreign exchange reserves of the country were at $20.085 billion by week ended November 13, 2020.

    The official reserves of the SBP increased by $484 million to $13.415 billion by week ended November 20, 2020 as against $12.931 billion a week ago.

    The SBP attributed the increase to official government inflows.

    The reserves held by commercial banks eased by $17 million to $7.137 billion by week ended November 20, 2020 as against $7.154 billion a week ago.

  • SBP keeps key policy rate unchanged at 7 percent

    SBP keeps key policy rate unchanged at 7 percent

    KARACHI: The monetary policy committee of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to keep the key policy rate unchanged at 7 percent for next two months.

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  • SBP announces incentives for banks to finance low cost housing

    SBP announces incentives for banks to finance low cost housing

    KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday amended regulations to incentivize banks for financing low cost and affordable housing.

    A statement said that the central bank is constantly providing enabling regulatory environment to promote housing and construction finance.

    This is an important sector that has significant economic linkages with other sectors in the economy and the current level of credit provision in this sector is at a very low level of less than 1 percent of GDP which is much lower than in other similar countries and in the region.

    To support the provision of finance to this sector and especially facilitate affordable housing, SBP has now announced five regulatory relaxations to incentivize banks for financing low cost and affordable housing.

    Firstly, the definition of low cost housing finance used in the current regulations for banks has been aligned with definition used under Government Markup Subsidy Facility for Housing Finance eligible under Tiers I & II of housing finance.

    Specifically, in the SBP regulations, the value of housing unit has been increased from Rs 3 million to Rs 3.5 million with maximum loan size increased from Rs 2.7 million to Rs 3.15 million. Consequently, the incentive for low cost housing finance will increase for banks as they will not only be able to enjoy markup subsidy facility by the Government but the regulatory incentives under low cost housing finance by SBP as well.

    Current regulations and banking practices require banks to obtain documentary evidence of income. Provision of this information is difficult for people generating income from informal sources which are generally in low income segments.

    In order to facilitate financing for this segment, State Bank is urging the banks to use alternate methods to identify income sources and assess the credit worthiness of the borrower.

    The 2nd and 3rd type of relaxations are being given to facilitate financing for this segment. Accordingly, under 2nd relaxation, banks have been exempted from the requirement of using ‘verifiable income’ for the purpose of calculating Debt Burden Ratio (DBR) in case of low cost housing finance where banks are using income proxies and where income of borrower is not verifiable.

    Resultantly, borrowers with ‘non-verifiable income,’ estimatedby banks using income proxies, will also become eligible to avail low cost housing finance.

    Thirdly, banks have also been exempted from the requirement of observing DBR, in case of low cost housing finance, where banks are using repayment surrogates like rent, utility bills, telcos bills, etc. to assess repayment capacity of borrower. Hence, borrowers without verifiable or non-verifiable income will become eligible to avail low cost housing finance.

    Fourthly, banks have been exempted from the requirement of Internal Credit Risk Rating System for the low cost housing finance till September 30, 2022 as their current systems do not specifically cater for low cost housing finance.

    Accordingly, borrowers of low cost housing finance who cannot avail financing due to banks internal credit rating criteria will now become eligible if the bank is otherwise satisfied. This time barred relaxation will provide banks to develop their Internal Credit Risk Rating Systems for low cost housing finance.

    Finally, in order to provide comfort to the borrowers who have liquid securities or already have a housing unit, banks have been allowed to extend housing finance for purchase/construction of a residential property by accepting existing residential property or liquid securities in lieu of equity contribution for housing finance at the time of calculations of Loan to Value ratio.

     Financing bank will create its lien on existing residential property/liquid securities in addition to mortgage of residential property being financed.

    It is expected that the above regulatory incentives would provide further impetus to SBP’s on-going efforts to accelerate housing and construction finance in Pakistan. It is reminded that banks have already been given mandatory targets of 5 percent of their private sector advances as housing and construction finance by December 31, 2021.

  • SBP to issue monetary policy statement on Nov 23

    SBP to issue monetary policy statement on Nov 23

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce monetary policy for next two months on Monday November 23, 2020, a statement said on Thursday.

    The SBP said that the Monetary Policy Committee of the SBP will meet on Monday, November 23, 2020 at SBP Karachi to decide about Monetary Policy.

    Later on, SBP will issue the Monetary Policy Statement on the same day.

    In its previous monetary policy statement on September 21, 202, the central bank kept the policy rate unchanged at 7 percent.

    Manual tax collection to be eliminated by January: SBP
  • Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves cross $20 billion

    Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves cross $20 billion

    KARACHI: The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country have crossed over $20 billion by week ended November 13, 2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

    The foreign exchange reserves of the country increased by $178 million to $20.085 billion by week ended November 13, 2020 as compared with $19.907 billion a week ago.

    The foreign exchange reserves of the central bank increased by $190 million to $12.931 billion by week ended November 20, 2020 as compared with $12.741 billion a week ago.

    The foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks fell by $12 million to $7.154 billion by week ended November 13, 2020 as against $7.166 billion a week ago.

    FBR extends date for filing income tax returns up to November 30
  • Over 100,000 potential overseas job losses for Pakistanis due to COVID

    Over 100,000 potential overseas job losses for Pakistanis due to COVID

    KARACHI: The official estimates of Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE) revealed that over 100,000 overseas job for which the recruitment process was going on in Pakistan, was disrupted due to COVID and is not going to recover unless the recruiting projects are revived.

    The bureau categorizes this category as a potential loss, according to a report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released on Wednesday.

    According to the official estimates of BEOE, more than 8.8 million Pakistanis were living abroad as of December 2017. Of these, 54 percent resided in the Gulf region, and the rest in other destinations, including Europe, UK, US, Canada, and Australia.

    Furthermore, during the last three years, around 1.7 million people left for different destinations, of which around 98 percent proceeded for employment in the Gulf region and only a small fraction went to acquire permanent residency in high-income countries.

    During the Covid-19 crisis, BEOE records reveal multiple channels of potential job losses for migrant Pakistanis.

    Around 50,000 Pakistani migrants faced layoffs in different countries. These jobs may not be recovered in the short term and are thus extremely vulnerable.

    Around 60,000 Pakistanis were recruited for overseas work, but could not proceed abroad due to travel restrictions and suspension of flight operations. The Bureau also categorizes these jobs as extremely vulnerable.

    In addition to these, 50,000 emigrants (Azaad Visa excluded) returned on paid/unpaid leaves as of June 2020. These workers have not been laid off, but their job continuation entails risk.

    For most of the returning workers, the lockdowns resulted in permanent cessation of income along with the loss of legal status and end of accommodation and health benefits associated with employment. In case of forced dismissals, workers also did not receive compensation, and other dues and therefore found it difficult to arrange travel expenses on their own.

    The recent figure of stranded Pakistanis in different destinations is highly skewed towards the Gulf region with more than 91 percent in only two countries, i.e., Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

  • Amazon.com likely increase Pakistan’s exports: SBP

    Amazon.com likely increase Pakistan’s exports: SBP

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said that listing of local firms on the world leading online marketplace, Amazon.com likely help to increase exports of the country.

    The central bank while discussing the digital connectivity at the time of coronavirus pandemic, said the Ministry of Commerce has facilitated enlisting more than 30 exporters on the world’s leading online marketplace, Amazon.com, on a trial basis.

    “On a successful completion of the test-run, this will provide an opportunity to more domestic firms to sell via Amazon and expand their outreach to global markets. This could potentially open a new avenue for Pakistan to increase its exports and create new employment opportunities locally,” the SBP said.

    Going forward, the cross-border B2C ecommerce regulatory framework developed by the SBP and the Web Based One Customs e-commerce module that is to be developed by the FBR, will help facilitate online sales of exporting firms by allowing hassle-free documentation and shipment of export orders.

    The SBP said that Pakistani authorities have been proactively working on the digitization front during the past half-decade or so; positive developments include the approval of the country’s first ever e-commerce policy in 2019.

    The policy aims to provide an enabling environment to private businesses, create new employment opportunities for youth and women, and provide an opportunity to the government to regulate the e-commerce sector in the public interest.

    To track the implementation of the policy and to facilitate e-commerce businesses, a National Ecommerce Council (NEEC) has also been established.

    Its main functions are to monitor and support the advancement of e-commerce in the private sector, foster innovation in the implementation of the necessary programs and initiatives, create awareness of the importance of e-commerce towards the overall growth in the economy, and provide relevant feedback and recommendations to the government.

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