State Bank of Pakistan, after undergoing a through study of prospects for allowing crypto-currency in the country, is of the opinion that it will not adopt BitCoins or crypto-currency in Pakistan, said Mr. Muhammad Ashraf, Executive Director, State Bank of Pakistan during a panel discussion at ongoing INet Conference in Islamabad.
State Bank Director was responding to a question asked by Mr. Harish Pillay, Global head of Community Architecture and Leadership at Red Hat Inc., who had opined that BitCoin like solutions have ability to completely eliminate the need of a middle-man for financial transactions; additionally crypto currencies are especially viable for remittances as there’s no service charge for during currency transfer.
In response, Mr. Ashraf said that topic of legalizing BitCoins in Pakistan has been discussed and deliberated at State Bank of Pakistan, however, due to obvious reasons — such as that it doesn’t warrant depositor’s interest or the interests of financial institutions — regulator is currently not considering to legalize crypto currencies in the country.
Yahya Khan, Head of Easypaisa, who was also part of the panel, said that his company has looked at crypto currencies from player’s point of view but Pakistan is currently at least few years behind where anyone could go to an outlet and buy BitCoins.
Mr. Yahya said that there is viable scope of BitCoins in Pakistan, especially for international remittances, but it has to be approved from regulator before BitCoins are allowed and used by masses in Pakistan.
