There are 14.5 million active bank accounts for women in Pakistan, accounting for only 27% of the total active accounts, while the largest share of the total 53.2 million accounts is 73% or 37.8 million for men.
These data have been released by the State Bank of Pakistan under the policy of "Banking on Equality: Reducing Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion".
The central bank's goal is to bridge the gender gap in financial inclusion, as well as access to economic services for women. The policy was launched by President Dr Arif Ali at a function at the Presidency on Friday.
SBP Governor Dr. Raza Baqir Reducing the gender gap in financial inclusion is still our priority. The first step is the advancement in bank accounts and branchless banking, which has improved access to finance for people of different socio-economic backgrounds at no cost.
He said that by December 2020, 62% of adults had access to bank accounts, which was clearly 45% more than in 2017. Under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, the goal was to ensure that 20 million women were active banks by 2023. I have accounts.
Raza Baqir says that despite the overall growth in financial inclusion, the gender gap still exists, with only 14.5 million active bank accounts for women as compared to 38.7 million active bank accounts for men as of December 2020. Keep
SBP has recently introduced a framework under which customers can open bank accounts digitally without visiting bank branches and its paperwork is also very easy. Baqir says the framework helps self-employed or unemployed women, freelancers and women who receive digital remittances.
SBP Deputy Governor Seema Kamil said that women, especially Pakistani women, face various obstacles in accessing formal financial services. Banking on Equality is the first gender mainstreaming policy in the financial sector that introduces gender differences in our policies and practices.
The BOE policy introduces five pillars.
۔1 Improving gender diversity and access to financial institutions
۔2 Development and marketing of women-oriented products and services
۔3 Establishment of special women's counters at bank branches
۔4 Strong combination of gender-segregated data and target setting
۔5 Establishment of Gender Policy Forum at SBP
Financial institutions will have to increase their female staff to 20% by December 2024, improve women's dealings with female customers, and branchless banking providers will be instructed to increase the number of women in their bank branch agents to 10%. Increase it
Similarly, by June 2024, 75% of all banks will have trained women to help guide female customers. In addition, all banks will provide gender training to their staff to eliminate gender discrimination for both men and women and improve the understanding of the needs of female customers.
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