The telecom sector has emerged as a prominent contributor to Pakistan’s economy and its contribution to the national exchequer has shown an increase of
Financial inclusion is very dependent on the enabling environment that regulators create. In Pakistan, there are three main regulators: the State Bank of Pakistan, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Pakistan Telecom Authority.
Regulations by these institutions acting in concert or independently determine the ease of doing business. By and large, Pakistan is blessed with very proactive regulators as they all have financial inclusion as a priority.
Recently the SECP created a regulatory sandbox and approved six solutions in the first cohort. The regulatory sandbox provides companies with the ability to test new solution sets for regulations which currently do not exist. After the trial period the SECP will determine if there is a genuine need in the market for the proposed solution, and if so will look to create the required regulations and seek approval from the parliament if a change in the current law is required.