State Bank of Pakistan has launched the second edition of its Banking on Equality (BoE) Policy to further reduce the gender gap and advance women’s financial inclusion in the country. BoE 2026 reflects SBP’s commitment to creating an enabling environment where women can thrive and contribute their full potential to the country’s economic development. Powered by digitalization, entrepreneurship, and access to finance, the policy aims to bring the unbanked into the financial fold.
Women’s inclusion in the financial sector is essential for long-term economic prosperity and a key part of SBP’s VSBP 2028. The previous BoE policy was the Pakistan’s first gender-mainstreaming initiative, aimed at reducing the growing gender gap in financial inclusion and making the banking industry more women-friendly. As a result, the overall gender gap in financial inclusion has narrowed from 39 percent in 2021 to 29 percent in 2025. Moreover, during this period, banks have inducted over 17,500 women under the policy, increasing the overall ratio of women staff from 13 percent to 17 percent, and have established women’s financial services departments/teams to develop women-centric products and services.
Since systematically implementing the BoE Policy in 2021, SBP recently won the prestigious Policy Achievement Award for Gender Inclusive Finance 2026 from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI).
Now, the BoE 2026 has been introduced, which builds upon the earlier policy’s progress, policy-enhanced actions and targets to: i) strengthen women’s representation and retention in the financial sector, ii) expand women’s access to financial services, iii) boost women’s entrepreneurship and financial literacy through support hubs, and iv) enhance use of gender disaggregated data for monitoring and outreach.
The new policy sets targets for women’s hiring, customer outreach, and branchless banking agents. It also advises banks to introduce day care facilities for working mothers and implement career progression policies to advance mid-career women into leadership roles.
Furthermore, to improve women’s access to financial services, BoE 2026 issues instructions to digitize women’s access to accounts and payment services through targeted digital onboarding drives, simplified women-centric digital accounts, and promotion of digital payments for women-led businesses.
To boost financing for women-owned/led micro, small, and medium enterprises, the policy encourages increasing the share of women borrowers across key financing segments. The policy’s objectives include embedding a gender lens in credit planning, introducing simplified and specialized financing products, leveraging digital platforms and fintech partnerships, and adopting alternative credit assessment and collateral mechanisms to serve women n with limited formal financial history.
Further, the policy aims to improve women’s entrepreneurship and financial literacy, providing a viable pathway for women’s participation in the financial system. To ensure smooth implementation, SBP will establish a robust monitoring and evaluation framework, conduct quarterly data reporting, and carry out regular mystery shopping exercises.
The BoE 2026 has been finalized after extensive consultations with international and local stakeholders. The policy will support the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) goal of narrowing the gender gap in financial inclusion to 25 percent by 2028 and help implement the World Bank-led Women Entrepreneurship (WE) Finance Code initiative.
Through stronger public-private collaboration, support for women’s entrepreneurship, and targeted reforms, BoE Pwomen’s026 aims to create a more inclusive financial ecosystem that supports women’s economic empowerment and contributes to broader national gwomen’s
For details: https://www.sbp.org.pk/assets/documents/circulars/BoE_2026_Policy_Document.pdf
