SBP launches ‘BoE 2026’ policy

According to Business Recorder, the State Bank of Pakistan has launched a second edition of its Banking on Equality policy, known as BoE 2026. The initiative is designed to narrow the gender gap further and widen access to financial services for women across the country. The policy focuses on digital tools, entrepreneurship and credit, with the aim of bringing unbanked people into the formal financial system.

Since the first policy began in 2021, the gap between women and men in financial inclusion has come down, from 39 percent to 29 percent by 2025. Banks have inducted more than 17,500 women under the policy, and women now make up 17 percent of bank staff, up from 13 percent. The SBP recently received the Policy Achievement Award for Gender Inclusive Finance 2026 from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.

The BoE 2026 sets targets for women's share in hiring, customer outreach and branchless banking agents, and urges banks to introduce childcare support for working mothers. Banks are also advised to adopt career progression policies that help mid-career women move into leadership roles. Among the measures are digital onboarding drives for women, simpler women-centric accounts and quarterly data reporting to monitor progress. It supports the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, which seeks to cut the gender gap to 25 percent by 2028.