SBP launches Banking on Equality Policy 2026

KARACHI (Commerce Reporter): The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched the second edition of its Banking on Equality (BoE) Policy to further reduce the gender gap and advance women’s financial inclusion.

The BoE 2026 builds on the first policy launched in 2021 and supports SBP Vision 2028. SBP said the gender gap in financial inclusion has narrowed from 39 percent in 2021 to 29 percent in 2025. During this period, banks inducted over 17,500 women, raising the women staff ratio from 13 percent to 17 percent.

SBP recently won the Policy Achievement Award for Gender Inclusive Finance 2026 by Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) for systematic implementation of BoE.

The new policy targets strengthening women’s representation and retention in the financial sector, expanding digital access, boosting entrepreneurship and financial literacy, and enhancing use of gender disaggregated data.

It sets targets for women’s ratio in hiring, customer outreach and branchless banking agents. It advises banks to introduce day care facilities and career progression policies for mid-career women.

It calls for digital onboarding drives, simplified women-centric accounts, digital payments for women-led businesses, and improved financing for women-owned MSMEs through specialized products, fintech partnerships and alternate credit assessment.

SBP said BoE 2026 was finalized after consultations with local and international stakeholders and will support the goal of narrowing the gender gap to 25 percent by 2028.