State Bank launches Regulatory Approval System

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan, as part of its ease of doing measures, has launched a Regulatory Approval System (RAS) for submission of cases related to the foreign exchange policy and operations dealt by its different departments.

The SBP’s RAS would cover cases dealt by its Exchange Policy Department (EPD), Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD), and SBP-BSC, a statement said on Friday. SBP RAS, which has become operational from March 24, 2020, provides an online platform to banks to interact with the SBP/SBP-BSC for submission of cases and receiving regulatory decisions.

Bringing ease of doing business, a key feature of the system was to keep the business customers updated about the status of their requests routed through banks from the day it was received at SBP.

Customers would receive system-generated update status reports from the time of case submission till completion at their email address provided by the bank. Customers would also be able to check out the updated status of their cases on SBP’s website anytime, the statement said. Using SBP RAS, banks would electronically submit foreign exchange operations related cases to the FEOD. The paper-based submission of cases by Authorised Dealers to FEOD has been abolished forthwith.

Similarly, foreign exchange policy related cases pertaining to EPD would also be submitted electronically through SBP RAS. However, for EPD, in addition to electronic submission, manual submission of cases through surface mail would continue, for the time being, till further instructions, it notified.

SBP RAS was expected to conserve resources and bring efficiency by allowing timely foreign exchange-regulatory approvals and replacing the paper based submissions that were prone to logistic and storage issues and unnecessary delays. SBP RAS is a step towards digitalisation intended to leverage technology for improving public service and promoting ease of doing business in the country.