KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Friday introduced a single digital process for opening investment accounts, removing barriers such as repeat identity checks that have slowed entry into the country’s capital market, a spokesperson of the regulator said, as it eyes increasing the number of digital investors to 2.5 million in three years.
The framework sets deadlines the industry has not previously worked to. Sahulat accounts, aimed to facilitate small and first-time investors, must be processed within one working day and standard accounts within two, the SECP said in a statement, with applicants given tracking numbers and written reasons for any rejection.
Issued as Circular 19 of 2026, it applies across brokers, asset managers and insurers, and lets intermediaries accept identity checks already carried out by another regulated institution instead of repeating them.
“The initiative is part of SECP’s broader drive to expand retail participation, particularly among young Pakistanis, and increase the country’s capital-market investor base to 2.5 million,” the regulator said.
In response to a question from Arab News, an SECP spokesperson said Pakistan currently has around 600,000 investors in the country’s capital market. He said the regulator aims to increase the number of stock market investors to 2.5 million within three years.
“Our focus is to remove entry barriers and use technology to make the investor journey simpler, faster and more accessible,” SECP Chairman Kabir Ahmed Sidhu said in a statement, adding that the aim was to broaden participation among young Pakistanis and build a deeper market.
The framework also allows for straight-through processing through API links between institutions, with unique identification numbers issued instantly and CDC sub-accounts opened without manual intervention. Where an investor has already been verified by another eligible regulated institution or a notified third party, intermediaries can rely on that check rather than running their own.
Investor accounts in Pakistan stood at 583,052 at the end of the last fiscal year, up 48 percent from 392,775 a year earlier, according to the SECP last month.
