State Bank of Pakistan grants EMI License to Finja

LAHORE – The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) recently granted Finja commercial approval for the EMI  (Electronic Money Institution) License. Finja had earlier become the first fintech to receive an in-principle approval for this license on April 9, 2020, from SBP.

With the approval of its EMI license, Finja becomes the only fintech in the country to hold multiple regulatory licenses, allowing it to scale its consumer-facing brand, the Finja App. 

Finja is committed to its vision of growing technology ecosystems in Pakistan by providing access to digital payments and EMoney Wallet-based solutions through open APIs, hence contributing to the accelerating start-up sector. 

Since its inception,  Finja through its technology has clocked over $1.7 Billion (PKR 230 billion) in transactional volume with its assets under management growing by over 200 percent from 2020. 

With an NBFC (Non-Banking Finance Corporation) license by SECP (Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan) and an EMI by SBP; Finja becomes the first non-banking entity in Pakistan to own a platform that can solicit customer deposits, plug into the country's payment plumbing, authenticate and onboard new users and provide digital credit solutions to small and medium businesses and the people that they employ.

Since the onset of the pandemic in April last year, Finja has scaled its digital lending portfolio by 640% disbursing over 50,000 loans to more than 10,000 small businesses across the country.  It’s motto “Humain Hai ApkiKamyabi Pay Yakeen”  reflectsFinja’s commitment to elevate local businesses and the people that they employ. 

Qasif Shahid (CEO & Co-founder, Finja) remarked, “Finja occupies a unique position in the value chain to partner and collaborates with commercial and microfinance banks, upcoming DFIs (Digital Financial Institutions), EMIs, FMCGs, distributors, merchants, and other cross-industry incumbents to provide payment solutions and digital credit in line with the evolving needs of SMEs and the professionals that they employ.”

Finja was co-founded by Qasif Shahid, Monis Rahman, and Umer Munawar in 2016 and is backed by leading global venture capital funds including Vostok Emerging Finance, BeeNext, Quona Capital, Gray MacKenzie, ICU Ventures, and HBL.