Presidents and CEOs of All Banks, MFBs, DFIs, EMIs and other Regulated Entities (REs)

Dear Sirs/Madams,

Banking on Equality Policy 2026 - Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) launched “Banking on Equality (BoE) Policy: Reducing the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion” in 2021, with instructions to bring a gender lens in policies and practices of the banking sector. These measures were aimed at promoting gender diversity within the workforce of SBP’s REs and enhancing women’s access to and use of financial products and services, thereby contributing to a 10 percent reduction in the gender gap in financial inclusion - from 39 percent in Dec-2021 to 29 percent in Dec-2025.

Now, in continuation of the previous instructions, the second edition of the policy is being introduced which builds on earlier policy’s progress and has enhanced actions to strengthen women’s representation and retention at REs, improve women’s digital access to financial services, boost women’s entrepreneurship and financial literacy, and leverage data for improved outreach and policy actions. The latest policy also supports the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) goal of narrowing the gender gap in financial inclusion to 25 percent by 2028.

• 1. Applicability/Scope
  • The ensuing instructions shall be applicable to the following REs:
  • 1.1. Banks including Commercial Banks (Conventional, Digital and Islamic) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs)
  • 1.2. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), Bank-owned Exchange Companies, Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), Credit Bureaus and Payment System Operators/Providers, where applicable.
• 2. Measures to Enhance Gender Diversity in Financial Institutions
  • 2.1. To improve the overall ratio of women in workforce, all REs shall develop action plans with timelines and responsibilities to improve female staff ratio from 17 percent to 22 percent by December 31, 2028.
  • 2.2. All REs shall develop strategies and policies for hiring, retaining, promoting and mentoring women to support gender parity at the workplace including comprehensive action plans with clear timelines for the following:
    • a. Inclusive Hiring and Career Progression Policies
      • i. Ensure that merit-based career progression policies are in place that actively advance mid-career women into leadership roles.
      • ii. Introduce structured mentorship, coaching and training programs for junior female staff.
      • iii. Introduce ‘non-discrimination’ clause in policies to offer opportunities to female PWDs, transgender persons and minorities to enhance economic opportunities for marginalized segments.
      • iv. Where feasible, prioritize placement of female staff to their preferred branches/cities to alleviate mobility constraints and support continuity of work.
      • v. Deploy women as financing officers to strengthen outreach to women borrowers in Micro, Agri, SME, Housing, and Sustainable Finance segments.
    • b. Enhance Safety and Support Mechanism in Work Environment
      • i. REs shall ensure compliance with the instructions on Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010.
      • ii. REs shall allow maternity, miscarriage and iddat leaves to women as per the applicable laws.
      • iii. REs are encouraged to provide day-care facility/allowance to support working mothers in their staff.
    • c. Enhanced Representation of Women in Governance
      • i. REs are encouraged to appoint more than one woman director on their boards, who should not be a close relative of any other Director or sponsorship-holder of the RE, and shall have sufficient banking and governanceexperience.
      • ii. REs shall designate a senior representative, preferably Group Head, as the BoE Champion, responsible for policy implementation and reportingto SBP.
      • iii. The Heads of Women Financial Services Department of Banks shall be included in the relevant committees dealing with Gender Mainstreaming / Diversity & Inclusion Councils established under the BoE policy, to ensure effective implementation of women friendly policies and practices.
• 3. Digitalized Access to Financial Services
  • REs shall take the following measures to improve and digitalize women’s access to accounts and financing:
  • 3.1. Enhance Access and Usage of Accounts
    • i. Initiate account-opening drives of Asaan Mobile Account and Asaan Digital Account to encourage digital account opening of non-working women, informal and gig workers.
    • ii. Facilitate and encourage digital account opening of women entrepreneurs by introducing dedicated Women Digital Business Accounts, with simplified requirements and tiered account limits based on the size and nature of the business.
    • iii. Increase women’s active account ownership by at least 20 percent annually on an incremental basis
    • iv. Encourage women-owned/led businesses and merchants to convert their payment acceptance modes to digital.
    • v. Branchless Banking (BB) providers to increase the number of women BB agents to 35,000 in the overall agent network, by December 31, 2028
  • 3.2. Increase Access to Credit
    • i. Banks and DFIs shall aim to double the financing portfolio of women and women-owned/led businesses[1]
      across priority sectors by December 31, 2028. The Banks and DFIs shall develop their annual credit plans accordingly and adopt focused customer segmentation approaches and lending methodologies.
    • ii. Banks and DFIs shall adopt digital platforms to provide end-to-end digital journey of technical, business and financial guidance, credit scoring, loan approval and repayment mechanisms.
    • iii. Banks and DFIs are encouraged to adopt credit assessment models using alternative data to evaluate the financial capacity of women-owned/led businesses.
• 4. Women’s Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy
  • To promote women entrepreneurship, REs should undertake the following initiatives:
  • 4.1. Establish Support Mechanisms for Women’s Entrepreneurship
    Women Financial Services Departments at banks shall establish institutional support for women entrepreneurs through in-house set-ups or in collaboration with specialized service providers focusing on the following:
    • i. Develop and implement a women’s entrepreneurship strategy encompassing both financial and non-financial services, identifying priority sectors and geographies for branch network mobilization.
    • ii. Establish Women Entrepreneurship Hubs in designated SME branches to provide non-financial advisory services.
    • iii. Partner with universities, incubation centers, Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Small and
      Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), Trade development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), to promote entrepreneurship & start-up financing among women graduates, and equipping them with technical, business, and financial skills.
  • 4.2. Customer Facilitation Approaches
    • i. Banks shall ensure that all branches have women champions in place and mobilize them and their sales teams to acquire new women customers.
    • ii. REs shall provide gender-sensitivity trainings to all staff to regularly address unconscious biases and make independent assessments every two years to evaluate their effectiveness.
    • iii. REs shall ensure all customer-facing communications including written, verbal and visual are clear, inclusive and accessible to all segments.
  • 4.3. Financial Literacy and Awareness
    • i. All REs shall fully implement SBP’s National Financial Education Roadmap (NFER) 2025-29 to meaningfully improve women’s financial literacy nationwide.
    • ii. All REs shall launch public awareness campaigns to challenge misconceptions around women’s account ownership and financing, and advocate against social and cultural barriers to financial inclusion.
    • iii. REs must promote SBP’s Sunwai app among women customers to ensure awareness of accessible complaint-handling mechanisms.
• 5. Leveraging Gender-Disaggregated Data for Policy and Outreach
  • All REs shall follow the below mentioned instructions:
  • i. Maintain a gender-disaggregated data repository covering accounts, credit and payments (number of transactions), and develop data dashboards to support management decisions, policy development and regulatory reporting.
  • ii. Analyze female customers’ financial behavior through quarterly tracking of account activity (number of transactions) at 30, 60 and 90-day intervals..
  • iii. Disclose financing extended to women and women-owned/led enterprises in financial institutions published financial statements.

Keeping in consideration REs’ business models and existing ratio of women in staff, accounts, financing and BB agents, separate institution wise targets (baseline: June 2026) will be communicated subsequent to these instructions.

Accordingly, all REs are advised to meticulously comply with the above instructions in true letter and spirit.

Please acknowledge receipt.