February 15, 2006	Wednesday	Muharram 16, 1427

KARACHI, Feb 14: The State Bank has decided to extend the cut-off time for the settlement of inter-bank deals. The SBP issued a circular on Tuesday which carries instructions for banks that the settlement timing for deals have been extended by at least one hour which would provide them enough time to prepare the required papers for the settlement of deals.

The cut-off timings for settlement of inter-bank deals will be 2:30pm from Monday to Thursday and up to 1:30pm for Saturday. However,

Fridays’ timing would be up to 3:00pm due to the break for prayers.

Money dealers in the inter-bank market said the extension of timing would facilitate banks to carry out their settlement process easily as they would find more time to square their positions.

Bankers said that the short timing was a problem and they were in constant pressure regarding the settlement. They used to make deal up to 1:00pm and find half-an-hour up to 1:30pm to complete paper work for the settlement.

The circular further said that TT timings for banks had also been increased up to 12:00 noon to allow them to effectively manage their liquidity positions.