KARACHI
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor, Tariq Bajwa presided his first meeting with the presidents/chief executive officers of all commercial banks here on Wednesday at SBP Karachi.
The governor welcomed and thanked the representatives of banks for their participation in the meeting. In his opening remarks, the governor shared the vision of a regulatory body must be being ‘Fair’ and ‘Firm’ with the regulated entities and communicated that these two themes would be the guiding principles for future interactions with the banking industry.
Adding further, the governor shared his priority areas of promoting agricultural financing, facilitating SMEs’ in their access to financial services and enhancing focus on addressing the disparities emanating due to the limited financial intermediary role and the already very small footprint of the banking industry in the province of Balochistan.
The governor emphasised upon the banking sector to proactively play their due role for the achievement of these objectives for the greater goal of inclusive economic growth and employment generation.
He further stated that with the country’s available natural resources coupled with support from the banking sector in the shape of adequate and targeted financing to small farmers, the agriculture sector offers tremendous opportunities for achieving higher economic growth.
He further observed that SME’s are the backbone of the industrial sector. In Pakistan, this is a neglected sector and the SBP along with the commercial banks need to proactively work for the development of the SMEs. He also showed his commitment to promoting Islamic banking by committing to make efforts in resolving the industry’s major issues including the issuance of government Sukuk for its liquidity management.
Other issues discussed in the meeting included rescheduling/restructuring of non-performing loans of textile industry, facilitation to retail customers in provision of foreign exchange services at banks’ branches, adoption of PayPak Cards, rationalization of banks’ charges related to Inter-bank fund transfer facility, and cyber security and export/import of foreign currency notes.
The CEOs/presidents of banks congratulated the governor on his appointment and committed to working with SBP in the priority areas. They shared their views with the governor on the overall economic situation; opportunities available and challenges faced by the banking industry and further stated that they were looking forward to the cooperation of SBP and Federal Government for resolution of those challenges.
In his concluding remarks, the governor reiterated that SBP would continue its engagements with banks on regular basis to identify, communicate, and resolve challenges on a priority basis.
