Banks asked to help donors

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has asked the banks to take necessary steps to facilitate the donors in making contributions to the Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund 2020, a circular said on Monday.

“In order to reduce the turnaround time for donors in making donations / contributions to the fund; the banks are advised to make “PM COVID-19 Relief Fund” a predefined account / icon, enabling the donors to just select the account icon and key-in the amount of donation,” the SBP said.

This is necessary to ensure donors’ convenience in making the donations, it added. All banks would make available at their selected branches, the drop box facility enabling the donors to drop crossed cheques in the name of the fund in their respective bank’s drop boxes. The banks would accordingly debit the customer’s account and transfer the proceeds to the fund’s account at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) through real-time gross settlement, it said.

“As per the feedback received from stakeholders, drop box facility for donations to the fund has not been made fully operational by all banks. The banks are advised to ensure that the Drop Box facility is fully operational and prominent notices or banners are placed in all such branches that the donors can drop the crossed cheques in the name of the Fund,” it added.