EFS, IERS digitised to assist banks, exporters

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan has digitised Export Finance Scheme (EFS) and Islamic Export Refinance Scheme (IERS) in a major step towards improving ease of doing business, especially for exporters.

“Digitisation of the refinance process is envisioned to effectively use technology for enhancing operational efficiency. Now EFS related cases and other relevant data will be submitted electronically to State Bank by banks through an online platform for expeditious regulatory decisions,” the SBP said in a notification on Wednesday.

“Initially, the digitised process of EFS cases will run in parallel with existing manual submission for a short period and thereafter, the paper based submission of cases by banks will permanently give way to electronic submission of cases.”

It said this online platform would also enable banks to track the updated status of EFS-related cases submitted to SBP and the SBP Banking Services Corporation (BSC), on real time basis.

Banks would now be able to retrieve the system generated reports for updated status for onward sharing with their customers, the statement said.

“The digitisation of EFS functions will enable SBP to delegate some of the operations to banks, such as sub-allocation of EFS limits by banks as per their own requirements.”

It added that under digitised mechanism, there would be no need of transferring an exporter’s limit from one SBP BSC office to another SBP BSC office.

“This will ensure swift processing of EFS cases and benefit the banks/exporters availing financing facility under EFS.”

“The digitisation of EFS functions is expected to conserve resources and bring efficiency by reducing turn-around time and replacing the paper based submissions of cases that are prone to logistic and storage issues,” the central bank said in its circular.

This initiative, it added, was a part of SBP’s Vision 2020, aiming to implement a modern framework for the retention and sharing of information and bring ease of doing business.

Banks having limits under Export Refinance Scheme and Islamic Export Refinance Scheme (IERS) would designate central reporting units (CRU) in their offices for reporting of information and data through KM portal - Regulatory Approval System (RAS) to SBP BSC Karachi, read the SBP’s circular.

The portal would be exclusively used for communication and data transmission between the banks and SBP BSC Karachi.

“With effect from February 01, 2022, all information/data related to new loans and roll-over under EFS/IERS Part I/II shall be submitted though KM Portal - RAS in line with revised operations mechanism. However, EFS loans outstanding as on 31st January 2022 will be processed as per existing mechanism till their maturity,” the central bank circular added.