Now resident Pakistanis can easily open bank accounts digitally: SBP

KARACHI: The central bank has said Thursday the resident Pakistanis will be able to conveniently and remotely open bank accounts via digital channels including websites and mobile applications, ARY News reported.

The State Bank of Pakistan said in its statement that since the onslaught of the pandemic, the adoption of electronic banking channels has grown rapidly and “the demands from bank and customers for digital financial transactions have increased manifold.”

“Based on the success of the Roshan Digital Account framework, SBP has now devised a comprehensive ‘Customers’ Digital Onboarding Framework,” said the central bank.

According to the bank, this framework provides a convenient way for all segments of society for opening bank accounts.

It specifically enables freelancers, self-employed or unemployed women, and recipients of remittances from abroad to open a bank account digitally with minimum document requirements, said today the bank press statement.

SBP said that while typically the bank accounts can be opened as either Savings or Current, this framework identifies four categories on the basis of functional limits, i.e. deposit or withdrawal limits, fund transfer limits etc and the documents required for opening an account.

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These categories include ‘Asaan Digital Account’, ‘Asaan Digital Remittance Account’, ‘Freelancer Digital Account’, and the ‘Digital Account’.

The first category is the easiest to open requiring very basic information and the least number of documents, but it has some limits on functionality, the bank says.

On the contrary, the Digital Account is without any functional restriction but needs more information for account opening.