Page 13 - CMA Journal (Jan-Feb 2026)

Exclusive Interview

women are completely left out of the economy. One of the inclusion. As the first gender-focused regulatory
easiest ways to include a woman into the formal economy initiative of its kind in the country’s financial sector, BoE
is by opening her bank account and making her financially laid the groundwork for institutional reform, targeted
included, as higher levels of women’s financial inclusion outreach, and a gender-intelligent approach to financial
are positively associated with higher rates of female labor services. Under the policy, targeted actions were taken
force participation. Nonetheless, women in Pakistan are through mandatory instructions to improve banking
underserved by the formal financial system due to both sector gender diversity, product diversification and
demand and supply side challenges. development capability, customer acquisition and

On the demand side, social and cultural constraints, such facilitation approaches toward women segments, and
as low mobility, limited land ownership, and lack of collection of gender-disaggregated data.
financial literacy, have traditionally limited women’s As a result of the actions laid under the BoE policy,
access to formal financial services. On the supply side, women’s financial inclusion improved from 39% in 2021
the banks and financial institutions’ policies, products, to 52% in 2024. The policy instructions helped add 17.6
services, and distribution strategies were also largely million new women-owned accounts over the last three
male-centric. Therefore, women’s low financial inclusion
remained a systemic problem that required a years, reducing the gender gap in access to accounts
multi-faceted approach. from 39% in 2021 to 30% in 2025, while overall
women-owned financing portfolios in SME and Agri
Cognizant of this, SBP prioritized women’s financial finance doubled in size.
inclusion in its three National Financial Inclusion
Strategies, issued in 2015, 2018, and 2024, respectively. Nonetheless, women still find it challenging to access
Although the NFIS had a gender-based target, in the credit, which points to the need for more
absence of an associated gender-mainstreaming gender-intelligent policy measures and regulations
framework, women were still excluded from the formal that digitalize access to financial services for women so
financial system. Therefore, in 2018, SBP initiated a deep they can be financially included from the comfort of
dive exercise on gender-disaggregated data to their homes. Banks’ existing credit assessment models
understand critical bottlenecks in women’s financial also rely heavily on formal financial histories, excluding
inclusion and develop an evidence-based policy to help many women-led enterprises. At the same time, the
reduce the rising gender gap in financial inclusion. absence of an integrated platform that offers
Against that backdrop, in 2021 SBP introduced a personalized, data-driven credit assessments alongside
comprehensive Banking on Equality (BoE) policy as the structured mentorship to support women’s business
first gender-mainstreaming policy envisioned by the proposal development and loan application processes
central bank. The BoE policy is multi-faceted, offering a represents a critical systemic gap. These persisting
wide array of interventions to tackle gaps in institutional bottlenecks continue to constrain women’s growth,
mindset and capacity, and includes well-defined targets economic empowerment, and financial inclusion.
to help financial institutions adopt holistic and mindful Therefore, the need of the hour is to strengthen
gender perspectives in their policies, with the aim of women’s digital access to accounts and payment
advancing women’s financial inclusion in Pakistan and services through targeted digital onboarding drives,
closing the gender gap.
simplified women-centric digital accounts, monitoring
The launch of the policy marked a significant milestone of account activity, and promotion of digital payments
in Pakistan’s efforts to reduce the gender gap in financial for women-led businesses.

ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, Jan-Feb 2026 11