Group items tagged

The State Bank of Pakistan launched a new instant digital payment system in a bid to boost financial inclusion and government revenue in the country where only a fraction of economic transactions occur on the books. The new system, called "Raast" or "direct way", will be rolled out in three phases culminating in early 2022. Developed through a multi-year collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and support from the World Bank, Britain and the United Nations, one goal for Raast is to boost involvement of women in the formal economy. https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2021/Pr-11-Jan-21.pdf

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has launched a regulatory sandbox to stimulate financial and technological innovation and help in enhancing financial inclusion and broaden the range of financial products in Pakistan.

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad reportedly informed the Senate's Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue that the central bank is working on CBDC. The governor said that the SBP is proceeding cautiously, and is currently reviewing work done by other central banks.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reportedly launched new Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) regulations that pave the way towards issuing CBDC by 2025. Deputy Governor Jameel Ahmad said that the SBP the aim of issuing CBDC would be to promote financial inclusion and reduce corruption, and inefficiency.

Pakistan's central bank is considering the launch of a digital currency by 2025, in order to promote financial inclusion and reduce inefficiency and corruption. The central bank is also planning to make its services fully digitized and technology equipped by the year 2030.

Libra's main stated mission is to service the world's poor and unbanked. Facebook's source for the 1.7 billion figure is the World Bank's Global Findex Database 2017. Findex also believes that 1 billion of these have mobile phones and 500 million have internet access. However, Findex also says that over half of the 1.7 billion come from just seven countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan. More than half of these are in places where cryptos are banned, Facebook can't freely operate, the country is under heavy FATF restrictions, or it faces other limitations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) opened its first cohort under Pakistan's first ever Regulatory Sandbox.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) published a draft of the Digital Bank Regulatory Framework for public consultation. The initiative is part of the SBP's comprehensive efforts to promote digital financial services, and the framework proposes guidelines for licensing and supplementary regulations for digital banks. https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2021/Pr-26-Mar-21-U.pdf

USSD also has its limitations. The customer experience is not as smooth nor does it offer the same security capabilities as STK or mobile internet. Further, USSD sessions can be dropped, potentially raising costs and harming customer trust. Despite these and other challenges, the majority of leading MFS providers rely on USSD, including many MNOs. Large deployments that rely primarily on USSD include bKash in Bangladesh, WING in Cambodia, EasyPaisa in Pakistan, ZAAD in Somaliland, M-PESA and Tigo in Tanzania, and EcoCash in Zimbabwe.

The Atlantic Council published new research that categorizes and explains how the world's largest economies are regulating cryptocurrencies. It looks at 25 countries-G20 member countries, in addition to countries with the highest rates of cryptocurrency adoption including Iran, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam.  Each country is assigned one of three regulatory statuses: legal (where all activities are permitted), partial ban (where one or more activity is not permitted), and general ban (where all activity is limited). It breaks regulations down by tax policy, requirements to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, consumer protection rules, and licensing and disclosure obligations.

The number of African fintech startups grew from 311 in 2019 to 564 in 2021, and accounted for 61% of the $2.7 billion deployed across Africa in 2021, according to a MasterCard study. While its share of global fintech funding is just over one percent, the continent's fintech sector still recorded one of the highest year-on-year growth rates globally. Nigeria, which is home to some of the continent's fintech unicorns, was not only the leading fintech hub in Africa, but across the Middle East and Pakistan. https://newsroom.mastercard.com/mea/press-releases/fintech-emerging-as-africas-most-vibrant-sector-finds-mastercard-study/

According to Chainalysis, global crypto adoption has leveled off in the last year after growing consistently since mid-2019. Emerging markets dominate the index. Out of the top 20 ranked countries, ten are lower middle income (:Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, Nepal, Kenya, and Indonesia), eight are upper middle income (Brazil, Thailand, Russia, China, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador) and two are high income (United States and United Kingdom).

Pakistan's Faysal Bank has joined RippleNet's xCurrent cross-border transfer network.