Governor State Bank visits CDC to further strengthen SBP’s commitment to the development of Pakistan Capital Market

Governor State Bank Dr. Reza Baqir visited CDC House to mark the successful operationalization of important projects for Pakistan Capital Market, namely Roshan Equity and RAAST for Dividend payments, which have been implemented in the recent past by the State Bank in collaboration with the Capital Market and commercial banks.

It is indeed a moment to celebrate for CDC and the entire Capital Market as the successful roll-outs of these key projects of market development have started yielding promising results besides effecting ease of doing business through innovative solutions, digitization and efficiency of processes.

Speaking at the occasion Governor State Bank Dr. Reza Baqir, said, “This is an occasion of immense and significant achievement as we gather here to celebrate the successful roll-out of important projects of national interest—including Roshan Equity and RAAST—that have been initiated by the State Bank of Pakistan and very well executed by commercial banks and CDC. In all these projects, Central Depository of Pakistan has been playing the important roles of facilitator, infrastructure architect and information sharing hub. This is only the beginning of what our vision is for the development of Pakistan’s Capital market. SBP is committed to work with SECP to support Capital market entities in this regard. Now, we have initiated a new project for the Capital Market pertaining to Shared KYC through which investors can open Capital Market Account through their respective Bank’s portal/app. This project will pave the way for wider outreach for our Capital Market.”

Mr. Badiuddin Akber CEO-CDC thanked SBP and SECP for their continued support and patronage in achieving these milestone in its market transformation journey. CDC is already processing thousands of transactions related to Roshan Digital Accounts and RAAST for Stock Exchange, for which CDC acts as the information sharing hub between the banks and capital market entities. Now, for the “Shared KYC project”, CDC will again act as the Information Sharing bridge for the digital opening of capital market accounts through banking portals for Local Resident Investors with the objective of removing duplication of information capture and KYC processes, he further said.

At the start of the ceremony, Mr. Moin Fudda Chairman Board of Directors-CDC, welcomed Dr. Baqir and other guests to CDC and highlighted the achievements of SBP under the leadership of Dr. Baqir. Mr. Furrukh Khan MD-PSX also addressed the ceremony and stressed on the important role of SBP in the development of Pakistan Stock Market. Ms. Musrat Jabeen Executive Director-SECP focused on the significance of collaboration between SBP and SECP.

Prominent personalities from the banking sector and Pakistan Capital Market also attended the event.

Mobile number to be utilized as account number

The State Bank of Pakistan is established to clarify banking by permitting users to revolve their mobile phone numbers into bank account numbers to enlarge banking services to the unbanked and monetary precluded people living in remote and rural areas.

A user can connect his/her mobile phone number or any other recognition number with their bank account number under Raast said Syed Sohail Javaad State Bank of Pakistan Payment System Department Director on Tuesday. This attribute will be upraised in October 2021.

Saying at the UBL Digital Mobile Commerce 2021 on Tuesday, he elaborated that soon, people could provide their mobile numbers to attain instant remittance.

According to him, remembering a long IBAN or bank account number is one of the toughest things in the banking ecosystem. He told that this was in our mind when we initiated scheming Raast in 2017.

“Next year, we are focusing to launch exciting pull remittance service under which a retailer of goods can appeal banks to finance for the merchandise from purchaser account with his authorization,” he described.

Read More about Raast App

The central bank in cooperation with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has enabled cybersecurity of digital banking in the country. He mentioned, we stand 99.9% safe from the world’s security warnings and strikes. We have obtained warnings and successfully controlled them to prevent them on time.

He further described that the State Bank of Pakistan kept occasional sessions with banks’ chief information security officers.

When a cyber-threat happens to the knowledge of the central bank, we cooperate with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and call banks to brief them about the warning and recommend actions for them to keep secure, he told.

Raast: Pakistan’s first instant payment system

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday launched the country’s first instant payment system—Raast—to enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously.

Addressing the ceremony, the Prime Minister termed the launch a major step forward by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) towards “Digital Pakistan”, adding it would help include the low income groups and make them part of the mainstream economy. He was optimist that it would go a long way in fighting poverty, particularly in rural areas.

Raast is part of Prime Minister Khan’s “Digital Pakistan” vision to include poor segments of society in formal economy. The faster payment system will be used not only to settle small-value retail payments in real time but will also provide cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry, including banks and fin-techs.

Khan said the instant payment system would not only document the economy, but would also generate more taxes to help build the country.He regretted that only two million people in the country of 220 million used to pay taxes, which was not enough to build hospitals and schools, and provide other basic facilities of life to the common man. Only 3,000 of the tax payers paid 70 per cent of the tax, he added.

The Prime Minister said foreign remittances had been constantly on the rise for the past five months, and had helped stabilise the rupee. After a gap of 17 years, the country’s current account had gone into surplus, lowering pressure on the rupee and playing a key role in strengthening the national economy, he added.

Khan said with increase in revenue collection, the government would create extra space for spending on the human development—education, health and clean drinking water.

He said Pakistan was among the top countries with the highest growth rate in the region, but today it was left behind. He hoped a move towards “Digital Pakistan” would help put the country back on track.

He said the people in Pakistan were used to cash economy, however, now it was time to move forward, adding the programme would help give a boost to the Ehsaas Programme, particularly its mobile wallet, and extend its reach to the women in rural areas.

Khan said his government was working for the empowerment of rural womenfolk by including them in various economic activities.He extended gratitude to Queen Maxima of the Netherlands as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank for the launch of the programme.

Queen Maxima appreciated Pakistan on the launch of the instant payment system as well as for effective strategy to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Ehsaas Programme for women empowerment.

Speaking on the occasion, SBP Governor Reza Baqir said the government employees and pensioners would be able to get payment of salaries and pensions in seconds. Baqir said it would also help curb corrupt practices and provide simple, secure and transparent transactions.

He said under the Prime Minister’s directions, the Roshan Pakistan system had met with success, adding the banks were also extending support to the people, who desired to take loans for building homes.

According to the data available with the SBP, digital payments account for only 0.2 per cent of Pakistan’s 100 billion transactions today, whereas the share of digital transactions in the peer countries ranges from 1.5 per cent to 7 per cent.

Raast is designed to operate at a cost recovery model to make digital payments affordable to end users of all socio-economic backgrounds. It will allow all financial institutions to seamlessly connect to each other via a single link to the central infrastructure, making digital payments accessible across any channel to customers of any financial institution.

Raast will also introduce more secure payment types to ensure that each transaction is authorised by the payer, and offer enhanced data protection and fraud detection services.

Published on The News