Pakistan banking system reopens to licensed crypto firms
Pakistan’s central bank has reopened the banking system to licensed crypto firms, reversing the de facto 2018 exclusion from regulated finance. The policy is tied to the Virtual Assets Act 2026 and oversight by PVARA (Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority).
Under the Pakistan banking system access framework, banks may open accounts for entities licensed by PVARA, but only after regulatory verification and strict AML and compliance checks. The Pakistan banking system opening still does not allow banks to invest in crypto assets with their own funds or to hold crypto on behalf of customers.
To control risk, customer funds linked to licensed crypto businesses must be held in segregated, non-interest-bearing local-currency accounts. Banks must continue due diligence, transaction monitoring, and suspicious-activity reporting under existing financial-crime rules.
For traders, the near-term impact is mainly operational: easier access to regulated banking rails for payments and payroll within Pakistan’s licensed sector. It is less about a sudden jump in global liquidity, since the framework preserves tight limits on bank crypto exposure.
Neutral
Both articles converge on the same core change: Pakistan’s banking system will support licensed virtual asset service providers, but with tight guardrails. That typically reduces friction for local, regulated operations (payments, payroll, account access), which can mildly improve activity within Pakistan-linked venues.
However, the framework explicitly prevents banks from investing in crypto with their own funds or customer deposits, and it requires segregated customer money, ongoing monitoring, and suspicious-activity reporting. Those constraints limit any direct expansion of crypto risk-taking by banks, so a major market-wide liquidity shock is unlikely.
Net effect: neutral for price impact on specific crypto assets. Any trader reaction should be gradual and driven more by improving on-ramps for licensed firms than by expectations of a rapid surge in overall demand or liquidity.