Certificates for Islamic banks launched

Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Dr Shamshad Akhtar announced on Saturday the launch of Shariah-compliant Bait-ul-Maal Certificates (BMCs) as a new liquidity management product of Islamic banks so that they could manage their liquidity by investing in this product of the central government.

The BMCs will not replace present T-bills, managed and controlled by the central bank on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. At present, the Islamic banks are not participating in T-bills auction because of the involvement of interest payment.

SBP creates 4-tier administrative system

The State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday announced creation of new four-tier administrative system.

The new administrative system of the central bank will create financial markets and reserve management cluster under which there will be a banking finance group, which will focus on high priority credit sectors such as infrastructure financing, housing finance, Islamic banking, SME and microfinance.

Governor SBP for the last few months has been trying hard to start infrastructure financing in the country and in this regard it is expected that state-controlled Industrial Development Bank (IDBP), by turning it into new banking entity, will be sole financial institution for infrastructure financing in the country.