KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has been working to make financial markets more inclusive, said the central bank’s acting governor, Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, on Monday.

Inaugurating the D8 Countries Central Banks Experts Meeting in Islamabad, Mr Wathra stressed the need for continued collaboration amongst D8 central banks for inclusive economic growth.

The meeting was held as part of the D8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation on promoting inclusive financial services and Islamic banking. Mr Wathra informed the audience that the SBP like many of the D8 central banks has been working on making financial markets more inclusive.

He told the audience that financial inclusion was SBP’s top priority and one of the pillars of its financial sector development strategy. So far, the central bank has been pursuing financial inclusion through various policy and market interventions to promote technology based financial innovations and address market imperfections.

However, going forward, the SBP is developing a holistic National Financial Inclusion Strategy in collaboration with the World Bank. The national strategy will be developed through consultative process.

Mr Wathra highlighted the fact that Pakistan had made significant progress in introducing Islamic banking system in the country. Islamic banks hold a market share of 9.6 per cent and 10.4pc of the total banking sector assets and liabilities respectively, with a healthy asset quality and double digit return on equity.

Accordingly, the SBP has recently adopted a holistic approach through a Strategic Plan for the industry for next five years (2014-18), which sets the future direction of the industry and gives a consensus strategy to take the industry to the next phase of growth and development.

The meeting was attended by experts from D8 central banks, members of private sector industry and other officials. The experts shared experience of member countries and deliberated on further cooperation in promoting financial inclusion, branchless banking and Islamic finance in D8 countries.

The objectives of D8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation include improving all member states position in the global economy, diversifying and creating new opportunitie s in trade relations, enhancing participation in decision-making at international level, and improving standards of living.—PPI