The State Bank of Pakistan has circulated a Ministry of Finance notification raising the minimum amount for Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) to the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) to Rs 3,000,000. This is an operative reporting-threshold change, not a consultation.
What exactly changed?
SBP's Banking Policy and Regulations Department issued Circular Letter No. 24 of 2026 on 12 November 2026. It refers to the Ministry of Finance's Notification No. 3(40) AML/2025-P-002-0001 dated 11 November 2026, which increases the minimum currency transaction amount reportable to the FMU to three million rupees. The circular refers back to BPRD Circular Letter No. 04 of 2015 dated 28 January 2015. The circular itself does not specify the former numerical threshold, so this briefing does not infer one.
When does the change take effect?
The SBP letter expressly states that the Ministry's threshold change has immediate effect. The Ministry notification is dated 11 November 2026; the SBP communication is dated 12 November 2026. These are regulatory dates, not the publication date of this briefing. Institutions should review the underlying notification and their reporting procedures before determining the treatment of transactions occurring around implementation.
Who must act?
The circular is addressed to the presidents and chief executives of SBP-regulated entities. It instructs recipients to ensure compliance with the Ministry notification. Relevant banking and financial-institution compliance teams should review transaction-monitoring parameters, CTR generation thresholds, reporting workflows, system configuration and audit trails. Whether a particular entity or transaction falls within a specific statutory reporting category must be assessed against the applicable AML legislation and instructions, not assumed solely from this short circular.
What does the threshold not change?
This letter addresses the currency transaction reporting threshold. It does not say that transactions below Rs 3 million are exempt from anti-money laundering controls, customer due diligence, sanctions screening, recordkeeping or suspicious transaction reporting. Institutions should not confuse a CTR amount threshold with a general permission to transact without scrutiny. The applicable independent obligations continue to require separate consideration under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 and regulatory directions.
What should financial institutions do now?
Compliance and operations teams should verify that their CTR rules use the new minimum of Rs 3 million, document the effective implementation date, test transaction aggregation and reporting logic where applicable, update internal procedures, and train staff to distinguish CTR reporting from risk-based suspicious activity escalation. The source does not establish a new filing deadline, a new exemption or a retrospective reporting rule; none is asserted here.
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Official instrument
State Bank of Pakistan — BPRD Circular Letter No. 24 of 2026 (12 November 2026). The circular identifies the Ministry of Finance notification by number and date. This report is limited to what the publicly accessible circular establishes.