KARACHI: Allied Bank Ltd (ABL) is going to set up an exchange company as a wholly owned subsidiary with a capital of Rs1 billion.

The announcement by one of the biggest commercial banks on Wednesday follows a recent circular by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in which the banking regulator initiated “structural reforms” in the exchange companies segment.

Earlier, other big banks like United Bank Ltd, MCB Bank Ltd and Meezan Bank Ltd also announced setting up exchange companies.

Commercial banks weren’t allowed to conduct the foreign exchange business with the general public until recently. Exchange companies fulfilled foreign exchange needs of people at the retail level while banks handled the dollar-denominated transactions in the interbank market.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2023