NOCs issued for setting up five digital banks.

KARACHI -- The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday issued no-objection-certificates (NOCs) to five applicants - Easy Paisa DB, Hugo Bank, KT Bank, Mashreq Bank, and Raqami - for establishing digital banks.

In January last year, the SBP introduced a Licensing and Regulatory Framework for Digital Banks in line with international best practices.

The framework was the first step towards introducing full-fledged digital banks which are expected to provide all the banking services through digital means without any need for their customers to visit the branches physically.

In response to SBP's Licensing and Regulatory Framework for digital banks, 20 applications were received from a diverse range of interested players such as commercial banks, microfinance banks, electronic money institutions and fintechs by March 31, 2022. Further, a number of foreign players including venture...