KARACHI, April 14: The State Bank has warned all banks and development financial institutions (DFIs) to refrain from discriminating depositors and borrowers. A circular issued by the banking policy department of the central bank on Thursday said banks were free to offer “different rates of return to their depositors/investors in the same category.”

But it warned that “banks/ DFIs should follow the principles of openness, fairness and prohibition of discrimination based on ethnicity, region, religion, sex, age, profession and marital status while offering the rates of return on deposits and while pricing the loans to their customers.”