On January 13, 2023, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) issued five retail digital banks (RDB) No-Objection Certificates. The SBP communication advised that the successful applicants were Easypaisa Digital Bank (Alipay and Telenor), Hugo Bank (Getz, Atlas, and M&P), KT Bank (Kuda, Fatimah Fertiliser, and City School), Mashreq Bank, and Raqami Islamic Digital Bank (PKIC, Enertec, and Planet N). It al
The world is watching. Ignoring the standards of governance in social, political and economic spheres entails costly consequences. Pakistan desperately needs both goodwill and material support from people, nations and institutions to slowly and steadily rebuild trust, which is essential not just for progress but also for the country’s sustainability. It needs to be more mindful. “The tolerance
The Sindh government has taken some steps in the right direction to empower local government bodies (LBs), but the proposed measures fall short of the fiscal, administrative and legislative autonomy the civic bodies need to manage their functions efficiently and independently. Things will become clearer once the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) announces its award within 180 days from the da
Ever since venture capital (VC) started flowing into Pakistan, the local ecosystem has seen polarising debates on whether the companies being built are sustainable, given their generally questionable unit economics. From unbelievably high losses to calls for investigating lax corporate governance mechanisms, the space receives a high dose of flak, both fair and unfair, that may be disproportion
The shares market witnessed another bull session on Wednesday as investors continued to accumulate banking stocks ahead of the monetary policy announcement scheduled for next week. Topline Securities said the upswing after the signing of a $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund has added a total of 5,230 points or 12.6 per cent to the representative index of the Pa