Local News
Pakistan leads in Islamic Microfinance
Pakistan has been acknowledged as a leader of Islamic microfinance with more than 20 institutions providing microfinance services. In an international summit on Islamic microfinance in Istanbul, AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics chief executive officer Muhammad Zubair Mughal said that conventional microfinance has badly failed and its examples can be clearly seen in India and Latin America.
PMN, PPAF launch joint initiative to map microfinance markets
The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) have jointly launched an initiative called MicroEYE to map the competitive environment of microfinance markets in the country. MicroEYE is a tool that allows users to assess the competitive situation in any geographical area located in Pakistan. The aim of this project is to identify the geographical locations of all Micro Finance Providers (MFPs) branches and related information.
SBP committed to making banking services easy to access
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is committed to using all the possible means to make the banking services accessible to all segments of the society. The ongoing review of policy and regulatory environment is to promote SME, agriculture and micro finance as a viable and mainstream activity for banking industry.
Mobile Money for the developing world
Developing countries such as Pakistan are among those that have made remarkable progress in global mobile phone adoption. In 2007, while just one million Pakistani's owned bank accounts, 70 million were mobile subscribers. In April 2011, this total subscriber figure stood at 108 million. This rapid mobile subscription rise has the potential for greater expansion in Pakistan enabling four mobile banking functions: government cash transfers, international remittances, bill payments and savings.
Al-Huda, Asasah PArtner to promote Islamic Microfinance in Pakistan
The Al-Huda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE) has partnered with Asasah to help reduce poverty in Pakistan by providing its services in Islamic microfinance product development. Al-Huda will design manuals describing Islamic financial products, provide accounting and auditing treatments, Shariah supervision, and help train staff members. Al-Huda will also help Asasah develop Shariah complaint IT solutions.
