Finance Minister launches “Centralized Gateway Platform” developed by CDC

As a unique initiative in Pakistan’s financial landscape, “The Centralized Gateway Portal” has been formally inaugurated by the Federal Minister for Finance—Dr. Shamshad Akhtar and Honorable Chairman SECP—Mr. Akif Saeed in a launch ceremony at CDC House, Karachi, on the 21st of September 2023. The solution has been implemented by CDC with the support of other entities, including PSX, NCCPL, MUFAP, IAP and PSBA.

The platform is envisioned to greatly help financial institutions by reducing the costs and complexities associated with onboarding their clients. CGP’s features include state-of-the-art tools for KYC/CDD and a uniform, synchronized and latest KYC and AML framework with AI based algorithms. It will provide financial service providers with the indicative risk rating to help them in making informed decisions. The CGP will function as a centralized repository for all data and documents, and eliminate the requirement for Financial Institutions to retain the documents with them, thereby reducing their storage requirements.

While officiating the event, Honorable Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue—Dr. Shamshad Akhtar said,

“The Centralized Gateway Platform, which has been implemented as a centralized investor on-boarding platform, is a very important and timely initiative by SECP and very well executed by CDC. It is very important for our economy that we should introduce such novel concepts which will promote the investment culture in Pakistan and provide an easy and standardized platform to enable the investors to make hassle-free on-boarding in their respective investment journeys, while eliminating cumbersome and repetitive processes.”

While addressing the occasion, Mr. Akif Saeed—Chairman SECP said, “It is indeed a very important milestone for the Pakistan’s financial landscape to have a consolidated on-boarding platform. The solution is a technology-based enabler that, along with investor education and awareness and independent securities advisors, should increase the depth and breadth of our market. Once successfully implemented, it can be expanded to the entire financial sector. Capital market infrastructure institutions like CDC, NCCPL & PSX need to focus on initiatives that make our market transparent, vibrant and robust.”

Centralized Gateway Platform

Mr. Moin Fudda, Chairman of CDC’s Board of Directors, welcomed the guests. At the occasion, while describing the objectives of the platform, Mr. Badiuddin Akber—CEO CDC said, “In line with international best practices, the Centralized Gateway Platform has been developed by CDC with the vision to effect ease of doing business and promote the investment culture by leveraging a centralized source of information, screening and subsequent profile updates. CDC will continue to play its role as an ENABLER and is committed towards providing innovative tech-based platforms to Pakistan’s financial landscape, through which all stakeholders can leverage CDC’s technological edge to scale their efficiency and outreach.”

The event was also attended by significant stakeholders of Pakistan’s financial eco-system, all of whom lauded CDC’s efforts in undertaking this initiative and playing its role for market development.

With the objective of making investment easier and more accessible for investors in multiple types of assets, CDC has successfully implemented a Centralized Gateway Platform (CGP) under the regulatory impetus of the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The CGP solution will help investors in on-boarding for diverse investment avenues (such as stocks, mutual funds, insurance products, etc.) using a centralized platform wherein they can maintain a standardized profile, KYC/AML procedures and leverage the platform to proceed for investment in diverse asset classes without having to undergo repetitive on-boarding processes with each financial institution.

Even for any subsequent updates, investors will only update their CGP profile, and CGP will accordingly update all relevant Financial Institutions, thus minimizing investor’s efforts while ensuring synchronization of information in a seamless manner.

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