News

Raising the Bar for Pakistan’s Fintech Ecosystem

Pre-2008, Ahsan Ahmed, the owner of a small clothing store, would make biweekly trips to the post office to send a money order to his family in Lahore. After enduring traffic jams, slow customer service and filling out endless forms, his family would eventually receive the funds three to four working days later. His story points to the fact that before OTC money transfer services like Easypaisa an

Insurance amid calamity

Misfortunes never come singly. That’s one big misfortune for companies that sell insurance against misfortunes. Non-life insurance players in Pakistan are in a tight spot. Calamities have struck their clients one after another, triggering insurance events — occurrences that result in insurance providers paying out on a claim. Premiums should go up correspondingly. Yet their clients refuse to

Oil prices jittery as market wary of demand risks

Oil prices struggled to find their footing in Asian trade on Thursday after easing in the previous session on the back of a weakening global demand outlook. Brent crude futures dropped seven cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $92.38 a barrel by 0310 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down 21 cents at $87.06 a barrel, or 0.2pc. Both Opec and the US Energy Department have cut their demand outlo

Apple, Samsung to upgrade phone software in India for 5G roll out by Dec

Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics will upgrade software for their 5G-enabled phones in India by December, the companies said on Wednesday, as Indian authorities press mobile phone manufacturers to adopt the high-speed network. Apple said it would push software upgrades to recent models, including the iPhone 14, 13, 12 and iPhone SE, which, industry sources say, do not yet support the network.

Remittances fall over 12pc in September

Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis declined to $2.4 billion in September as the open and grey markets were offering much higher rates than interbank. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday said remittances decreased by 10.5 per cent month-on-month and 12.3pc year-on-year in September. The inflows in August were $2.72bn while they were $2.78bn in September 2021. The central bank sai