Finance & Market

  Islamic Banking and Financing has gained a foothold both nationally in Muslim countries and internationally in the financial world. For years, many Islamic banks have registered double-digit growth rates, surpassing their conventional peers. At first glance, all seems well for the Islamic banking industry. There is ample room for growth as Islamic banking rarely exceeds a 3rd of total market share, even in GCC countries and Malaysia. Many potential …

  Microfinance in Pakistan has had a significant shift from the days when microfinance was being discussed as the next big innovation to address the poverty issues in Pakistan to being discussed in terms of the next big investment opportunity. The perception of microfinance in Pakistan has undergone a fundamental change in more than a decade of its evolution. The microfinance sector in Pakistan has developed a successful and sustainable …

  Pakistan is facing lot of problems, like unemployment and slow growth in agriculture sector, etc. At this critical time we have to look seriously at different sectors of the economy that have the viability to provide employment to the million of unemployed. The higher employment growth possibility lies in the modern high technology industries but it is also present in the labor-intensive industries of the traditional small enterprise sector …

  Pakistan has come a long way in the past decade in terms of higher education than any other era in its history. The growing population and a large, emerging block of youth made it imperative to bring educational reforms. New universities throughout the country have greatly helped in shouldering the responsibility of educating young minds and bring a relief in the highly competitive admission process. TPS has had a …

  The current financial year (2012-13) is likely to close on a pessimistic note with: 1) looming balance of payments crisis, high budget deficit, exports proving dismal for financing imports but above all country continue to suffer from ‘trust deficit’. The conditions are marred by general elections for the time being because the caretaker government has no mandate to take some crucial decisions, including finalizing terms and conditions for the …

  There is no doubt that Pakistan suffers from cost pushed inflation. Any hike in the global prices of crude oil, crude-based raw materials and edible oil push inflation. The impact becomes even more pinching when Pak Rupee faces erosion in value against other major currencies. At present Rupee value is on the decline due to erosion of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves. Though, the central bank has been intervening regularly …

  Banks perform various roles in the economy. First, they ameliorate the information problems between investors and borrowers by monitoring the latter and ensuring a proper use of the depositors’ funds. Second, they provide intertemporal smoothing of risk that cannot be diversified at a given point in time as well as insurance to depositors against unexpected consumption shocks. Because of the maturity mismatch between their assets and liabilities, however, banks …

  Stable foreign currency exchange rate and foreign currency reserves are one of the critical aspects for Pakistan’s ability to engage in commerce with other countries. Volatility in the exchange rate is increasingly being recognized as a concern for Pakistan’s economy. The Pak rupee has depreciated significantly against the US dollar marking a new risk for Pakistan’s economy. After maintaining a range bound movement from 2009 to 2011, the rupee …

Achieving new milestones at a faster pace By and large Pakistan has one of the most robust commercial banking systems of the world. It is mainly due to a very vigilant regulator, prudent players and excellent clients. One can point out a few bad incidents, regulatory lapses and failure in compliance but all these were there because the ruling junta tried to facilitate the favorite ones, else sponsors of none …

  In Pakistan, foreign banks initiated in mid 1990 the concept of electronic banking practices. Domestic banks also adopted the technology and E-banking services like ATM cards and debit cards in late 90s were introduced. The swift improvement in electronic distribution channels has produced tremendous changes in the financial industry, especially with a rising rate of change in technology. The developments happen in information and communication technology are escalating competition …