The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has advised all the banks to use digital portals for end-to-end digitalization of case submissions and processing.
This development is aimed at facilitating the business community in Pakistan, promoting the ease of doing business, enhancing operational efficiency, and making the processing of Foreign Exchange (FX) related cases cost-effective and environment-friendly.
The SBP had launched an online platform called the ‘Regulatory Approval System’ (RAS) in the first leg of its end-to-end digitalization drive to facilitate banks in the online submission of FX-related cases to its Exchange Policy Department (EPD) and the Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD) of its Banking Service Corporation (SBP BSC).
The SBP RAS has been operational since 24 March 2020 whereby the manual submission of cases has been discontinued, and banks have been submitting their cases online to the FEOD. Later on, the paper-based case submissions to the EPD by banks were also discontinued, effective from 28 August 2020.
In the next leg of its digitalization drive, the SBP has instructed banks to develop portals to facilitate their customers in the online submission of cases to banks, and to abolish paper-based submissions. Against this backdrop, 21 banks have developed their portals and have started onboarding their customers besides receiving cases digitally. The rest of the banks are in the development phase and the onboarding of their customers is underway.
In view of the SBP’s priority for the end-to-end digitalization of FX-related submission of cases, the banks have been directed to complete the development of their portals, onboard and educate their customers about the same, and discontinue the paper-based submissions of FX-related cases by their clients to them by 30 June 2021.
The banks have also been advised to make comprehensive arrangements for any contingencies and to ensure the continuity of business in case of disruptions in their portals.
Courtesy: Pro Pakistani