State Bank of Pakistan news - policy rate, reserves, fintech, remittance policy.
SBP has completed its inaugural regulatory sandbox cohort (Jan-Jun 2026), greenlighting four remittance and open-banking solutions from Taptap Send UK, UBL, Digi Khata, Swich Retail and Neem. Participants must still secure separate SBP authorisation before commercial launch.
SBP-held foreign exchange reserves rose USD 1.2bn in the week ended 4 September 2026 to USD 18.3bn. Total liquid reserves reached USD 23.7bn including USD 5.4bn at commercial banks, giving Pakistan roughly 2.74 months of import cover ahead of scheduled IMF disbursements.
PM Shehbaz Sharif directed SBP and stakeholders to fully digitise worker remittances, up from an already 92% digital share. Mobile banking users have hit 137m and merchant digital transactions are up 300% year on year, easing WHT and documentation compliance.
PACRA lifted Bank of Punjab's long-term entity rating from AA+ to AAA, making it the first provincial bank to reach Pakistan's top credit tier. The upgrade reflects PKR 2tn+ deposits and near-doubled operating profit of PKR 40.7bn.
The State Bank of Pakistan kept its benchmark policy rate at 11.5% in its first MPC meeting after the FY27 budget. Easing oil prices and softer inflation expectations from the US-Iran deal underpinned the hold.
Pakistan's IT and IT-enabled services exports hit a record USD 4.2bn in the first 11 months of FY26, with a USD 459m current-account surplus reported for May. The figures landed on the same day as Punjab and Sindh budgets.