Pakistan's financial inclusion index rises to 59.5 in 2025

Pakistan's financial inclusion index rose to 59.5 in calendar year 2025 from 58.1 a year earlier, reflecting improvements in the use, accessibility and quality of financial services, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said.

The index increased by 1.4 points, with greater use of financial services contributing the most to the improvement, followed by gains in access and service quality, the central bank said in a statement.

The Pakistan Financial Inclusion Index measures the extent of financial inclusion across the country and tracks progress in making financial services more accessible and useful to individuals and businesses.

The State Bank attributed the improvement partly to initiatives under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2024-28, including the expansion of the Raast digital payment system's merchant network, the introduction of digital banks and campaigns to encourage account opening.

Digital payments drive progress

The usage component recorded the largest improvement among the index's three sub-indices, indicating that customers were increasingly using financial services rather than merely gaining access to them, according to the central bank.

The access and quality components also improved, although the State Bank did not disclose their individual scores or the size of their increases in its statement.

The expansion of Raast's merchant onboarding and payment ecosystem was among the initiatives identified as supporting the improvement. The introduction of digital banks and efforts to encourage account opening also contributed to progress. The central bank additionally highlighted consumer orientation and financial literacy as factors reinforcing financial inclusion.

The results indicate that efforts to expand digital financial infrastructure and encourage greater use of formal financial services are contributing to progress under the national strategy, which covers the period from 2024 through 2028.

However, the State Bank's statement did not provide a breakdown of the index by region, gender or income group, making it difficult to assess how evenly the gains were distributed across different segments of the population.

The latest increase underscores the importance of measuring not only access to financial services but also their actual use and quality as Pakistan advances its financial inclusion agenda.