Fintech & digital payments rules in Pakistan (2026)

Payment System Operators and Payment Service Providers are licensed by SBP under the Rules for PSO/PSP 2014. Applicants must meet a minimum paid-up capital of PKR 200 million, satisfy a Fit and Proper Test for key shareholders and executives, and obtain prior SBP approval for all products and services offered.

Revised EMI Regulations issued in June 2023 expanded permitted services to include payment aggregation, payment initiation, account information (open-banking-type API access for third-party fintechs), escrow for domestic e-commerce, and inward cross-border remittances. Licensing follows a three-stage process: In-Principle Approval, Pilot Operations, and Final Commercial License. Four EMIs held commercial licenses as of the 2023 revision with six more at various licensing stages.

SBP's January 2022 Digital Bank Regulatory Framework created two license types—Digital Retail Bank (DRB) and Digital Full Bank (DFB). Five No-Objection Certificates were issued to EasyPaisa Bank, Mashreq Bank Pakistan, Raqami Islamic Digital Bank, HugoBank, and KT Bank. EasyPaisa Bank received a full commercial digital banking licence; Mashreq Bank Pakistan received a restricted pilot licence in February 2025.

Raast, SBP's national instant payment system launched in January 2021, supports Person-to-Person (P2P), Person-to-Merchant (P2M), and bulk government payments operating 24/7. SBP is targeting the routing of all government payments through Raast by end of FY2025-26, backed by a PKR 3.5 billion merchant-adoption subsidy programme running from September 2025 through 2028.

There is no standalone Open Banking Act; however, the 2023 EMI Regulations explicitly permit licensed EMIs to offer API-based Account Information and Payment Initiation services to financial institutions and fintechs, creating a de facto open-banking mechanism within the EMI licensing regime. SBP's October 2025 Technology Risk Management Framework update also applies governance requirements to API-connected payment institutions.

No specific BNPL regulatory framework has been enacted; BNPL is acknowledged by SBP as a needed innovation but remains unregulated as a distinct product category. SBP issued Regulatory Sandbox Guidelines in May 2025, with the first cohort accepting applications from August to October 2025, intended to pilot emerging fintech business models under supervised exemptions.