In remarks at the Future of Banking Summit 2025 in Karachi, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Jameel Ahmad outlined the central bank’s recent and ongoing digitisation work, spanning payments infrastructure upgrades, enabling regulation for new digital finance models, and initiatives aimed at expanding secure access to digital financial services. The update highlighted upgrades to SBP’s retail and large-value digital payment infrastructure and the introduction of regulations for digital banks, electronic money and payment institutions, alongside measures to address cyber threats and operational vulnerabilities. Raast was positioned as a core element of Pakistan’s digital public infrastructure, offering secure, real-time, low-cost transactions, with a call for banks and financial institutions to accelerate adoption and broaden digital payment solutions across public and private sector use cases. The Governor also referenced Open Finance (Open Banking) and e-KYC initiatives to support customer data control, simpler onboarding and third-party innovation, as well as cross-border payment integration using international standards such as ISO 20022. SBP is in advanced stages of establishing an innovation hub and has launched the first cohort of its Regulatory Sandbox, with testing focused on areas including inward remittances, open banking and merchant onboarding.
State Bank of Pakistan 2025-11-12
State Bank of Pakistan urges faster Raast adoption and launches first cohort of its Regulatory Sandbox
State Bank of Pakistan Governor Jameel Ahmad, at the Future of Banking Summit 2025, detailed the central bank's digitisation efforts, including payment infrastructure upgrades and regulations for digital finance models. Key initiatives include Raast for secure, real-time transactions, Open Finance for enhanced customer data control, and cross-border payment integration using ISO 20022. The SBP is also advancing an innovation hub and a Regulatory Sandbox to test remittances, open banking, and merchant onboarding.