KARACHI – State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has permitted approved dealers to buy dollars on the interbank market in order to settle card-based cross-border transactions using International Payment Schemes (IPS).
The central bank announced in a notification on Wednesday, saying, “It is decided to allow authorised dealers to purchase USD from interbank for settlement of card-based cross-border transactions with IPS [such as Visa, Mastercard, etc.] in view of representations received from stakeholders.”
The SBP stated that the notification will be effective until July 31, 2023.
Prior to this, the authorised dealers were only permitted to buy USD from exchange companies for such transactions.
