
Karachi: 25th Oct 2023
In its endeavor to facilitate investors and effect ease of doing business, Central Depository Company (CDC) has collaborated again with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for leveraging SBP’s RAAST Payment Gateway to allow mutual fund investors to transfer their investments to the mutual fund bank accounts. This project was mutually initiated by CDC and MUFAP who jointly approached SBP to extend the utility of RAAST payment gateway for facilitating mutual fund unit sales. CDC has developed a framework where it acts as an “Aggregator” and issues a Payment ID, enabling investors to easily purchase mutual fund units by transferring funds to the respective Asset Management Company (AMC) from any bank portal. The transfer of funds is instantaneous and completely cost-free through RAAST’s P2P facility. This project is a roll-out of RAAST’s peer to peer (P2P) payment framework with CDC as the payment aggregator. Three AMCs are already live for the pilot phase, with more in the process of onboarding.
CDC has been actively engaged in the RAAST project since its initial phases and holds the distinction of being the first institution selected to test and implement the framework through its Dividend Disbursement project.
While officiating the event, Deputy Governor SBP – Mr. Saleem Ullah said, “State Bank of Pakistan and CDC share the vision of leveraging new technology to improve process flows in the Financial Markets and create a multidisciplinary network of transparency by replacing old, obsolete and manual processes with innovative tech-based processes. We are pleased that we are mutually collaborating in the realization of our shared vision and have successfully implemented many groundbreaking initiatives together, such as Roshan Equity Investments, Shared KYC and RAAST payment gateway implementations for Capital Market related payment processes.”
Commissioner SECP – Mr. Mujtaba Ahmad Lodhi also honored the event and remarked, “CDC has been consistently working closely with SECP for formulating and refining the Regulatory framework for the mutual fund industry. It is heartening to witness the successful realization of many such pioneering initiatives by CDC, in collaboration with SBP and SECP, and the steady progress towards market development, greater efficiencies and investor facilitation.”
While speaking at the event, CEO CDC – Mr. Badiuddin Akber said, “This project is a step toward implementing the SIP-type model in Pakistan, a model which is already successfully operational in regional peers like India, and has the potential to attract significant investments in mutual funds. We look forward to more collaboration between CDC and SBP in line with our mutual vision of effecting transparency and ease of doing business through digitization and innovation.”
Chairman CDC – Mr. Moin Fudda welcomed the audience and thanked SBP for their continued support in market development endeavors by CDC. The event was attended by Commissioner SECP – Mr. Mujtaba Ahmad Lodhi, CEO MUFAP – Ms. Mashmooma Zehra Majeed, senior executives of the mutual fund industry and significant stakeholders of Pakistan’s financial eco-system, all of whom lauded CDC’s efforts in undertaking this initiative and playing its role for market development.