SBP increases Banks’ Cash Reserve Requirement

November 14, 2021 (MLN): To moderate money supply growth and domestic demand, the State bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Saturday that it has increased Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR).

The average CRR to be maintained during a period of two weeks by scheduled banks has been increased from 5% to 6% and the minimum CRR to be maintained each day has been increased to 4% from 3%.

This will help sustain current economic recovery, achieve the government’s medium-term inflation target, and reduce pressures on the rupee, SBP tweeted.

CRR is the amount of money that banks are required to keep with the State Bank of Pakistan and is applicable on demand liabilities and time liabilities with a tenor of less than a year. Time liabilities with a tenor of more than one year shall continue to be exempted from maintenance of cash reserves.

“With the economy recovering briskly from last year’s acute Covid shock, there is a need to gradually normalize policy settings. In recent months, real money supply growth has drifted above its trend.

“Today’s measure will moderate this growth, achieve the government’s medium-term inflation target, and reduce pressures on the Rupee,” SBP said.

In addition, this measure is likely to have a positive impact on deposit mobilization as the banks would be encouraged to generate more deposits to cope with additional liquidity requirements for their operations. This would incentivize banks to offer better returns on deposits to attract these funds; thus serving the SBP objective of encouraging savings. It may also be highlighted that waiver of CRR on Time liabilities with tenor more than a year will encourage banks to raise more long-term deposits, which will facilitate asset-liability matching and enable banks to extend long term loans for construction and housing financing, it added.

The revised average Cash Reserve Requirement of 6% shall be effective from November 12 2021, whereas the revised daily minimum requirement of 4% shall be effective from November 15, 2021.

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