The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan’s central bank, has released draft Open Banking Regulations for public consultation. Under the proposed SBP open banking framework, authorised fintech companies and other third-party providers could access customers’ banking data through secure, consent-based sharing.
The draft is meant to spur financial innovation, raise competition, and widen access to digital financial services. SBP also says customers would gain greater control over their financial information.
What the draft rules would allow
Authorised Third-Party Providers (TPPs)—firms cleared to connect to bank systems under the rules—would be able to initiate business payments when the customer agrees. According to the central bank, the SBP open banking framework would support the digitisation of business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (C2B) payments.
SBP also expects the framework to improve credit assessments, expand financing options for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and encourage more tailored financial products. In plain terms, that means banks and fintechs could, with consent, use shared account information to assess borrowers and design services more closely matched to how people and firms actually use money.
Safeguards and how the draft was shaped
The draft draws on international practice and on findings from SBP’s first Regulatory Sandbox cohort on open banking—a supervised test environment for new financial technology. It includes safeguards on data privacy, cybersecurity, fraud prevention, and consumer protection.
Those protections sit alongside the data-access and payment-initiation features. The design goal, as framed by SBP, is to open room for fintechs while keeping customer consent and security at the centre of bank data exchange.
Public feedback deadline
SBP has asked financial institutions, fintech companies, technology providers, consumer groups, academia, and the general public to submit comments by 30 November 2026. Stakeholders may send feedback by email or post to the Payment Systems Policy & Oversight Department.
The document remains a draft until SBP finalises Pakistan banking regulations in this area after reviewing responses. Until then, the consent-based sharing model described in the proposal is not yet binding law.
Aasan alfaaz mein
State Bank ne open banking ka draft nikaala hai. Is se approved fintech companies aap ki bank information sirf aap ki ijazat se use kar saken gi. Is se digital payments aur chhotay businesses ke liye financing asaan hone ki umeed hai. Log 30 November 2026 tak apni raaye bhej sakte hain.
