Naya Pakistan certificates receive $89 million

KARACHI: Pakistan’s newly-launched saving certificates have attracted around $89 million from overseas Pakistanis in a little over month, indicating a growing tendency of expatriates to avail attractive rates of return.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday said Naya Pakistan certificates received $88.7 million since their launch earlier last month. The SBP rolled out a new regulatory framework to enable overseas Pakistanis to digitally open bank accounts, called Roshan digital account, in Pakistan without visiting a banking branch or embassy and remit their funds into the saving instruments.

“Inward remittances from overseas Pakistanis into Roshan digital account (RDA) touched another daily high with inflows of $11.2 million on 11 December,” the SBP said in a tweet. “To this date, total inward remittances into RDA have reached $154.6 million, with $88.7 million invested in Naya Pakistan certificates.”

Overseas Pakistanis can benefit from a wide range of services, such bill payments of their family members. They can also avail opportunities to invest in dollar- and rupee-denominated Naya Pakistan certificates. They can also have an access to stocks trading through this digital account. The investment in saving certificates also has repatriation flexibility and funds can be repatriated through the digital account without any hurdles, said the State Bank of Pakistan Governor Reza Baqir in a message on the central bank’s website.

The government launched Naya Pakistan certificates (NPCs) to offer attractive investment opportunities to overseas Pakistanis and resident Pakistanis with assets held abroad. These certificates are available in conventional and shariah-compliant versions.

NPCs are sovereign instruments, denominated in dollar and rupee, issued by the government and can only be purchased through Roshan digital accounts. NPCs offer attractive returns over different maturities. Resident Pakistanis who have declared their assets abroad can also invest in USD denominated NPCs.

The minimum investment in USD denominated certificates is $5,000 which can be increased by integral multiples of $1,000 with no maximum limit. For PKR denominated certificates the minimum investment is Rs100,000, which can be increased by integral multiples of Rs10,000 with no maximum limit.

Islamic Naya Pakistan certificates offer rates of 5.5-7 percent on USD and 9.5-11 percent on PKR denominated certificates. The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased to $20.4 billion as of December 4 from $18.8 billion at end-June 2020. Remittances from Pakistani workers abroad rose by 26.9 percent to $11.7 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year.