KARACHI: Slowly but steadily the Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA) have started attracting overseas Pakistanis as they have invested $2.4 billion at the end of the last month.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had introduced the RDA in September last year for non-resident Pakistanis to enable them to remotely open bank accounts in their homeland through online digital portals without physically visiting branches.

According to the SBP data, the non-residents Pakistanis invested $2.4bn through 248,723 accounts.

The investment came from 175 countries, indicating that the scheme has been widely introduced within one year. However, the RDA growth is not as per the expectations of the banks. A number of banks have open RDA accounts to maximise their efforts for attracting foreign exchange, the main objective of the scheme.

Overseas Pakistanis made investment of $25 million till September this year in equity market. The non-resident Pakistanis made a total investment of $962m in Naya Pakistan Certificates through conventional means and $698m thorough Islamic mode of financing for the same certificates.

The data shows that most of the investments by the non-resident Pakistanis were made for Naya Pakistan Certificates which guarantee much higher return than the prevailing rates of return in other developing and developed markets.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2021