SBP's InvestPak Portal goes live as govt seeks to diversify borrowing sources

The government has launched the State Bank of Pakistan’s InvestPak Portal to widen digital access to government securities and gradually reduce its reliance on commercial banks for financing. 

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the portal marked the beginning of a new era of investment and would support the government’s objective of diversifying its investor base.

The InvestPak Portal is a digital investment platform for individual and corporate investors seeking to invest in government securities. The platform is aimed at digitising and simplifying the process of investing in fixed-income government instruments.

Aurangzeb said the government had recently met bank chief executives to discuss expanding credit to the private sector. He said excessive government borrowing from banks had remained a concern because it could crowd out private-sector lending.

The finance minister said Pakistan remained too dependent on commercial banks for government borrowing and needed to broaden its funding sources over time.

He said reducing this dependence would help banks build capacity and willingness to increase lending to the private sector.

Aurangzeb also called on the non-bank financial institution industry to play a greater role in the government securities market. He said participation by non-bank financial institutions made sense given their business models and asset-liability management requirements.

The finance minister said technology could support financial inclusion by making investment faster, cheaper and more accessible.

He said Pakistan had seen strong growth in equity investor participation during the past 12 to 18 months.

However, he said the country had lagged in the fixed-income segment.

Aurangzeb said the InvestPak Portal would help address this gap by improving access to government securities and encouraging broader participation in fixed-income investment.