KARACHI: The National Institute of Banking and Finance (NIBAF) and Risk Associates signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Saturday to improve cybersecurity and compliance in Pakistan’s financial services sector.
The agreement was signed by Lubna Farooq Malik, Co-CEO of NIBAF, and Aftab Rizvi, CEO of Risk Associates, at Risk Associates’ regional office. Senior officials from both organisations attended the ceremony.
The partnership aims to strengthen institutional capacity in cyber risk, information security governance, digital forensics, and compliance with international standards, including PCI DSS and ISO/IEC 27001.
Malik said the banking industry’s rapid digital transformation requires a parallel focus on cyber defences. She said the collaboration would support banking professionals through capacity-building programmes to improve cybersecurity skills and awareness.
Rizvi said the regulatory and threat landscape is evolving quickly and static cyber defences are not sufficient. He said the partnership would introduce advanced frameworks such as AI-based threat modelling, automated governance, risk and compliance tools, and machine learning-based risk detection systems to help financial professionals respond more effectively to complex threats.
