Source: FD Circular Letter No. 05 of 2026 · Research date: 11 October 2026. Analysis is general information and should be read with the full instrument and subsequent amendments.
SBP has prescribed a settlement account for AED-denominated Naya Pakistan Certificates. The instruction is narrow, but it engages the payment controls and reconciliation responsibilities of agent banks.
The circular and its scope
Finance Department Circular Letter No. 05 of 2026, issued by SBP on 7 October 2026, addresses presidents and chief executives of Naya Pakistan Certificate agent banks. It refers to the earlier Finance Department Circular Letter No. 4 of 2026 dated 1 June 2026 concerning issuance of UAE dirham-denominated certificates.
The new letter specifies that, from 15 October 2026, agent banks are to remit the face value of AED-denominated certificates to the identified SBP Nostro account maintained with Emirates NBD Bank, Dubai. SBP expressly leaves all other instructions on the subject unchanged.
Nature of the regulatory change
This is an operational settlement direction for a particular currency denomination. It is not, on its face, an amendment to the certificate’s investment rights, an increase or reduction in profit rates, or a general change to Naya Pakistan Certificate eligibility.
The legal and operational task for an agent bank is to implement the revised settlement destination with the appropriate level of payment-control assurance. Bank-account and messaging coordinates are sensitive operational data and should be confirmed against the authenticated SBP communication, not copied from an external news summary.
Chambers assessment
The commercial consequence of a settlement-account change is usually narrow when properly implemented, but the risk of misdirection can be acute. Payment instructions must be accurately configured, independently verified and reflected in treasury documentation and maker-checker authorisation processes.
Institutions should also distinguish the effective date of the direction from the date of publication, and verify how instructions in transit or pending at the transition are to be handled under existing internal procedures and any SBP clarification.
Implementation considerations
Treasury, payments, finance and compliance teams should reconcile the change across the certificate subscription workflow, the relevant Nostro relationship, SWIFT processing, internal accounting codes and customer support scripts where necessary.
Nothing in the circular suggests that the remaining NPC framework ceases to apply. Banks should preserve earlier instructions except insofar as expressly changed by the October letter.
What should affected organisations do?
This is a targeted implementation item for NPC agent banks. The priority is secure settlement configuration and evidence of authorised change control before 15 October 2026.
Recommended action checklist
- Retrieve the signed SBP letter through an authenticated channel and independently confirm settlement particulars.
- Update approved treasury instructions, SWIFT templates and applicable control registers.
- Test settlement and reconciliation handling before 15 October 2026.
- Maintain an audit record of approvals, verification and operational rollout.
Timing and legal status
SBP circular specifies 15 October 2026.
Sensitive bank transfer coordinates are deliberately not reproduced in this website brief; always verify directly against SBP.
State Bank of Pakistan — original circular letter