ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s central bank governor on Thursday discussed digital transformation and Islamic banking with his Saudi and Indonesian counterparts on the sidelines of the 15th Islamic Finance Services Board Summit in Jeddah, the State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement.
In separate meetings with the two officials, Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr. Reza Baqir discussed various topics of mutual interest related to Islamic banking, digitalization, open banking, and financial inclusion.
The participants of the conversations agreed that digital transformation could play a pivotal role in expanding Islamic finance and help improve financial inclusion in their countries.
“In the meeting with the Saudi Central Bank Governor, Dr. Baqir thanked the Saudi authorities for the financial support they had recently announced for Pakistan in the form of a deposit at the SBP and oil financing,” said the official statement released by Pakistan’s central bank. “Dr. Baqir briefed the Governors of the Saudi Central Bank and Bank Indonesia about the recent initiatives of SBP in the areas of Islamic banking, digitalization, financial inclusion and low-cost housing finance.”
Baqir maintained digitalization of the financial sector was vital to secure the broader objective of making financial sector more productive, efficient, and inclusive.
He added that technology-driven solutions could open doors of financial sector to the unserved and underserved segments of the society, particularly the women.
“He also shared the measures taken by SBP to inject liquidity in the economy and banking sector during Covid that helped save jobs as the country went into a locked down situation,” said the SBP statement.
