Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and fully-fledged Islamic bank Meezan Bank have collaborated to establish a new, dedicated trading platform catering to Islamic banks’ clients that hold Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs) — an investment solution for non-resident Pakistanis.
The new platform will be available through the exchange’s Karachi Internet Trading System (KiTS) and will facilitate any RDA client of an Islamic bank focused on investing in Shariah compliant securities, through the services of over 100 securities brokers and trading right entitlement certificate (TREC) holders that use KiTS as an order management system.
Meezan Bank developed the criteria for investing on the new Shariah compliant platform and vetted by the PSX’s Shariah advisor. The criteria specified include investing in KSE Meezan Index (KMI) All-Share securities, Shariah compliant IPOs and Shariah compliant exchange-traded funds.
“The purpose of this platform is to enable non-resident Pakistanis to securely invest in their homeland’s capital market in a Shariah compliant manner,” the PSX said. The platform also provides clients with a broader suite of securities brokers to choose from for their Shariah compliant investing needs.
“The demand for Shariah compliant offerings is consistently rising and the PSX has continued to grow its suite of Islamic capital market products,” noted Farrukh Khan, the managing director of the PSX.
Farrukh also hailed Zahid Latif Khan Securities for being the first brokerage house to integrate and enable the platform service for its RDA clients. “With this development in KiTS, all TREC holders can now offer Shariah compliant products to RDA clients, creating new business opportunities for them.”
Meanwhile, Irfan Siddiqui, the founding president and CEO of Meezan Bank, acknowledged the bank’s leading position in terms of having the highest share in RDA accounts and investments in the domestic equity market.
“The bank is already offering a Shariah compliant trading platform for non-resident Pakistanis through 22 brokers which are onboarded through their own systems. With the launch of this (new) Shariah compliant trading platform, brokers who are using KiTS will also be onboarded with Meezan Bank to further extend these services to RDA customers. We are hopeful that this service will help tap into a wider RDA investor base that is seeking Shariah-permissible investment options,” Irfan said.