SBP Cuts Banking Gender Gap From 39% to 29%, Launches New Policy

Shoaib Nasir – Published October 14, 2026 – Updated October 14, 2026 – 2 min read Share Facebook WhatsApp Pinterest Twitter KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) launched a new policy on October 13, 2026. It aims to close the gap between men and women in banking.

The policy is called Banking on Equality (BoE) 2026. It is the second edition of SBP’s gender policy.

SBP ran its first Banking on Equality policy from 2021 to 2025. In that time, the gender gap in financial access fell from 39% to 29%. Banks added more than 17,500 women as customers under the policy. The share of women working in banks rose from 13% to 17%. Many banks set up teams that build financial products for women. SBP also won an award for this work. The Alliance for Financial Inclusion gave it the Policy Achievement Award for Gender Inclusive Finance 2026.

Hiring: Banks must set targets for hiring women. This covers staff, outreach teams, and branchless banking agents. SBP has asked banks to offer day care for working mothers. Banks should help mid-career women move into leadership roles.

Digital banking: Banks must run drives to bring more women online. They should build simple digital accounts made for women. Banks should also push digital payments for women-led businesses.

Loans: Banks must lend more to women. This applies most to small businesses owned or run by women. SBP wants banks to use different ways to check credit history for women who lack formal records.

Tracking progress: SBP will check bank performance every three months. It will also run mystery shopping checks to see how banks treat women customers.

WhatsApp Pinterest Twitter Shoaib Nasir Shoaib Nasir writes news, guides and daily rate updates for PakBiz, covering business, markets and household prices in Pakistan, to the standards in our editorial policy. He keeps the gold, silver, petrol and prize bond pages current, and writes the finance stories and blog guides that sit around them. Every figure comes from an official notification, a market source or a published announcement, and he checks it before the page goes live and changes it as soon as the rate moves. When a reader spots a mistake, he fixes it and notes the change on the page. Corrections and questions: [email protected]

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Get Alerts Are you sure you want to logout?