- Banks asked to rethink the models, prioritize financial intermediation.
- The Governor of SBP, Ahmad, calls for an increase in credit in the private sector.
- Aims to stimulate financial inclusion, to reduce the gap between the sexes by 2028.
Karachi: The governor of the central bank of Pakistan called on Banks on Tuesday to extend their use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve access to affordable financial services, emphasizing small and medium -sized enterprises (SMEs ), the agricultural sector and women, and women, The news reported.
The banking sector must increase their use of artificial intelligence based on alternative data sources such as cellular and satellite data to provide profitable alternative delivery channels to improve access, use and quality of financial services, In particular to SMEs, agriculture and women population, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Jameel Ahmad, told Pakistan Banking Summit 2025.
He also reiterated the need to “work on a war foot” to help companies digitize their payments by providing digital transactional access, preferably via secure portals.
The banker has reiterated the need to considerably increase financial supply in the country, adding that no country can achieve sustainable economic growth with low private credit levels.
Ahmad said: “Our banks must rethink their current commercial model, reassess their priorities and play a more active role in financial intermediation.”
He added: “To achieve more inclusive and sustainable economic growth, the country would require a significant increase in the depth and extent of the financial sector … The composition of the banks’ loan portfolio in Pakistan is very biased for companies established around 74 %, and only 5.0 % go to SMEs ”.
The Governor of the SBP has called on the banking sector to reassess its commercial strategy to “focus on mobilizing deposits and increase the credit of the private sector, in particular SMEs and agriculture sectors”.
He also urged financial institutions to “improve their ability to assess the impact of climate change between credit, market, liquidity and operational risks”.
Stressing the central role of companies and the university world in the reading of the challenges of sustainability, he stressed the need for research, political recommendations and the promotion of collaborations.
The governor said that the strategic vision of the SBP 2028 “focuses mainly on promoting inclusive and sustainable access to financial services; Build an innovative and inclusive digital financial ecosystem; And improve the efficiency, efficiency, equity and stability of the financial system. “He added that” the explicit addition of financial inclusion as one of the basic functions of the SBP in the modified SBP law underlines its importance for the SBP. “
Stressing significant progress in financial inclusion in the last decade, he said that “coverage of the bank account has reached almost 64% of the adult population, against 47% in 2018, while the gap between Sexes is also limited from 47% to 34%. “”
Referring to the last national financial inclusion strategy 2024-2028, Ahmad stressed that the central bank set an objective to increase the coverage of bank accounts to 75% of the adult population and reduce the gap between the sexes to 25 % by 2028.
He said that “to achieve these ambitious objectives, we want to improve the depth, extent and quality of financial services, in particular for low -income individuals, the microfinance sector, SMEs and agriculture.”