SBP and Commercial banks
ISLAMABAD: After experiencing a consistent decline for a few months, the foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have surged by $56.4 million, amounting to $7.7 billion during the week ending on September 15, 2023.
The central bank disclosed this in its latest data released on Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, the national reserves of Pakistan increased by $107 million, settling at $13.2 billion during the period quoted above.
Like SBP, the commercial banks’ reserves improved by $51 million, settling at $5.49 billion.
The central bank did not mention any reason for this unexpected increase in the foreign exchange reserves. However, experts believe that the rapidly falling value of the dollar amid the ongoing crackdown positively impacted the reserves.
Notably, when Pakistan received $1.2 billion from the IMF while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates gave $3 billion, the total foreign exchange reserves expanded to $14.07 billion.
Consequently, in the current fiscal year, total liquid foreign reserves have increased by $4.01bn or 43.62%.
However, ever since the boost from the IMF and the Arab countries, fresh inflows seem to have dried up, with the total reserves slowly depleting almost every week.
Govt issues alert about fake FIA, SBP, and Army officials scamming bank account holders
Meanwhile, the government has issued a new ‘Cyber Security Advisory – Preventing Financial Scams,’ noting a significant increase in banking and financial scams employing phishing, smishing, and vishing techniques.
According to the advisory, scammers are introducing themselves as government officials (such as FIA, SBP, and Defense Force) and using fake official landline numbers and logos on WhatsApp DP. They achieve this through call-cloning services.
As a result of these deceptive tactics, online banking users are frequently becoming victims due to their limited awareness of cybersecurity and the advanced social engineering methods employed by scammers, which include call cloning, malicious apps, and fake websites. Consequently, malicious actors are fraudulently withdrawing money from users’ accounts.
