With the world battling the novel coronavirus pandemic, the impact has been felt on every sector and everyday life. Perhaps one of the biggest effects of this pandemic has been on the financial services industry and the insurance industry. In many cases, insurers have already started taking the necessary action for protecting their businesses, which have left many consumers in the lurch in this challenging time. On the other hand, …

Central banks around the world have slashed interest rates, though perhaps none as aggressively as State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). According to a recent report by Bloomberg, Pakistan has cut its interest rates the most this year, out of a survey of nine countries, including the US, Peru, South Africa, Turkey and Ukraine. Coronavirus has created ‘unique’ challenges for a monetary policy due to its non-economic origin. In last three …

Presently, Pakistan seems to be suffering from ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ – a psychological condition wherein a captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands. The obsession and the unwavering trust in multilateral agencies, including IMF, and the traditional foreign bilateral partners, particularly Saudi Arabia and the strings attached with the helping-hand ever extended by them in the past bears testimony to the …

The monetary policy is the key to influence trade/ current account of any country. The extent and the effectiveness of that, however, vary from country to country, given country’s own political and economic dynamics and other realities on the ground. These elements must not be used as ‘one-size, fits-all’ as part of the template to manage the economy, particularly the external account. The effectiveness of monetary policy is already under debate these …

The cyber security is still a challenging and diverse field and it has been evolving due to constant technology transformation and enhancement as per changing business environments, needs and practices. In the earlier stage of protecting IT systems or digital assets, primary focus was on ‘perimeter security defense’ against outside threats as lots of capital and investment was made on perimeter controls like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, proxy servers, etc. to avoid the cyber …

The coronavirus has presently affected more than 100,000 persons worldwide. This fast widespread of the virus impacts several business sectors including that of insurance. The pandemic won’t be affecting life insurance in 2020 and as per Moody’s agency estimates, the impact of the pandemic on global reinsurers will be limited, i.e. the consequences will only be significant only at very high levels of gravity. For property and casualty insurance, the …

The present government is striving to improve its citizens’ quality of life and economic well-being by ensuring availability of accessible, affordable, reliable, universal and high-quality Information and Telecommunications Technology (ICT) services. It believes in mass adoption of emerging digital technologies and innovative applications to enable cross-sector socio-economic development and transformation of economic activities, governance models, social interaction, and achievement of sustainable development goals. It was in this backdrop that Digital …

Foreign direct investment in telecom The telecom sector has been a star performer lately when it comes to foreign direct investment. The sudden rise in telecom FDI this fiscal, however, owes mainly to the license renewal. Telecom companies have made partial payments to renew their right to operate in Pakistan. The government, meanwhile, pocketed valuable non-tax revenues to meet IMF targets. There have been rounds of inflows and outflows in …

The new digital economy has redefined the business landscape. Successful traditional businesses are at a huge risk of not only losing their dominant position but going out of business. Technical advancements, ubiquitous connectivity, proliferation of mobile devices combined with our understanding of how humans interact with machines and software has allowed creation of not just new businesses, but increased process efficiency within all industries. Today, we have the convenience of …

One of the key policy objectives of Digital Pakistan Policy is promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship and incubators/start-ups in IT sector through: Generation of sustainable innovation, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for the country’s rapidly growing technology savvy and entrepreneurial youth. Conducting digital skills programs for the human resource development in current and emerging technology domains. Collaboration with international partners to boost innovation. Setting up venture capital funds to hold national level …