2025-09-29 | FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025Added · Updated
Banks and their group entities must provide specific core information to the State Bank of Pakistan for resolution planning and resolvability assessments. The requirements mandate the identification of relevant and material entities, defined as those representing at least 5% of group assets, along with detailed data on corporate structures, financial functions, and internal and external dependencies. Banks are required to submit governance arrangements, liability profiles, funding needs, and views on resolution strategies, including potential impediments and regulatory exemptions. This obligation applies to all banks under the State Bank of Pakistan's jurisdiction to ensure orderly resolution capabilities.
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 1 of 11 Guidelines on Core Information Requirements for Resolution Planning
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 2 of 11 The Annex-I provides a non-exhaustive list of core information requirements in respect of a bank (or its group). 2.1 Relevant Entities and Material Entities i. For the purpose of resolution planning, SBP requires a bank to identify any of its group companies/ entities that the bank assesses to be relevant to its resolution (“relevant entities”). At a minimum, the following should be given due consideration for determining relevant entities: a. Any holding company/entity of the bank; b. Any subsidiary, associates or affiliates, or any branch (including overseas) of the bank; c. Any group company/entity of the bank that performs financial functions, either independently or together with any other group companies/entities; d. Any group company/entity of the bank on which its material entities have key legal, financial or operational dependencies; e. Any group company/entity of the bank that is licensed, authorized, approved, designated or otherwise supervised or regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. ii. In addition to above, the bank may also identify any other entity as a relevant entity if it considers such entity to be pertinent for its resolution planning, including, for example, any group company/entity that plays an important role within the group by performing functions that directly or indirectly affect the bank or other group companies/entities on which the bank is dependent. iii. The bank is also required to identify the relevant entities that the bank considers material to the revenue, profitability, operations or effective functioning of its group (“material entities”). In this regard, any entity (domestic or overseas) that represents at least 5% of the bank’s group assets may be considered as “material”. 2.2 Core Business Lines and Operating Model The banks are required to provide an overview of the operating model of its material entities and identify the business lines which are core to the material entities’ operations by taking into account factors such as revenue, profitability and franchise value (“core business lines”). The franchise value of a core business line represents its contribution to the overall value of the bank’s group, including its networks, international linkages, access to markets, etc. 2.3 Dependencies Key dependencies (internal and external) refer to support or services provided to the material entities, the sudden and disorderly failure/ disruption of which would present a serious impediment to the performance of critical financial functions by the material entities. The dependencies could be financial, operational or legal/structural in nature. For instance, disruption of support/ services provided to material entities by bank’s group companies/ entities (“internal dependencies”) could materially affect the funding or operations of the banks. Similarly, disruption in provision of operational services by the
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 3 of 11 external service providers (“external dependencies”) could affect the ability to maintain continuity in the provision of any critical financial functions by the material entities, e.g., access to Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs), payments or IT services, etc. 2.4 Financial Functions i. In line with FSB’s document [“Guidance on Identification of Critical Functions and Critical Shared Services”], core information on a bank’s financial functions is to be provided under five (05) broad categories: a. Deposits; b. Lending & Loan Servicing; c. Payments, Clearing, Custody & Settlement; d. Wholesale Funding Markets; e. Capital Markets & Investments. ii. The Annex-II provides a non-exhaustive list of the potential financial functions of a bank. In respect of each financial function which the bank (or its group) conducts or undertakes, the bank should provide information as required under Annex-II with respect to each of its material entities. 2.5 Critical Financial Functions i. Critical financial functions are activities or operations carried on, or services provided, by a material entity on which third parties rely and where such activities, operations or services, if discontinued, would likely: a. lead to the disruption of services that are essential to the economy; b. undermine the general confidence of participants in the financial market; or c. give rise to contagion within the financial system; for any reason including the size, interconnectedness, substitutability, complexity or cross border activities of, or the market share held by, the material entity. ii. The following criteria may be considered for determining the criticality of financial functions performed by the bank: a. Concentration – whether the bank holds a significant market share in certain functions, such that there may be consequent implications in terms of substitutability and interconnectedness. b. Substitutability – the availability of, and the ease with which, the provision of the function could be replaced by other substitute players in the market. c. Interconnectedness – the extent to which a certain function may be interconnected or co-mingled with other functions or shared services such that the disruption of that function would likely to cause contagion to the wider financial system. d. Impact – how a sudden discontinuation of a function could impact markets, including customers, other market participants, and infrastructure. iii. The banks are also required to provide their views on the criticality of their financial functions with reasoned justifications.
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 4 of 11 Annex-I: Core Information Requirements Number Heading Details Required
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 5 of 11 Number Heading Details Required 2.2 Core Business Lines and Operating Model i. Overview of business model a. Explain the business model of the material entities. b. Explain the activities of core business lines of material entities. ii. Core business lines For each core business line, provide the following information: a. A description of the business line and an explanation of its operations, as well as key financial information including profit & loss statement and balance sheet; b. A mapping of the business line to the material entities and a breakdown of revenue, operating expenses and client base; c. An indication of the business line’s franchise value, for example, a description of the core business line’s networks, international linkages or access to markets which are critical for the overall value of the group; d. An explanation of the governance structure of the business line; e. A description of any other factors which make the business line core to the material entities. 2.3. Dependencies i Overview of dependencies a. Provide an overview of the key legal, financial and operational dependencies of material entities on bank’s group companies/entities (“internal dependencies”) and external services providers (“external dependencies”), including the cross-border dependencies of bank. b. Explain the criteria and assessment used to identify the key dependencies. c. Describe the governing contractual arrangements. d. Provide further information on the dependencies at financial function and business line level. ii. Operational dependencies Describe with supporting quantitative information, the nature of key internal operational dependencies of material entities. Such dependencies could include: a. Shared personnel; b. Shared facilities; c. Shared systems (including information technology platforms, management information systems, risk management systems, and accounting and recordkeeping systems); d. Intra-group reliance on access to FMIs (e.g. membership held by one entity upon which another entity relies for access or for the provision of certain services). iii. Financial dependencies Describe with supporting quantitative information, the nature of key internal financial dependencies of material entities. Such dependencies could include: a. Capital, funding, or liquidity arrangements; b. Cross-guarantees, cross-collateral arrangements, cross-default provisions, and intra-group and cross-product netting arrangements; c. Risk transfers and booking arrangements. iv. Legal/structural dependencies Describe with supporting quantitative information, the nature of key internal legal/ structural dependencies of material entities. Such legal/structural dependencies could include intra-group reliance on licenses to conduct certain regulated activities (e.g. license held by one entity upon which another entity relies for the conduct of certain regulated activities). An example could be the reliance on Telecommunication Companies (Telcos) for conduct of branchless banking and license cancellation by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) of the Telco. could severely disrupt the branchless banking services provided by the bank.
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 6 of 11 Number Heading Details Required v. External dependencies a. Identify key dependencies on external service providers. Such dependencies could be financial, operational or legal/structural in nature, including access to FMIs, payments or IT services, etc. b. For each external service provider identified, the following information should be provided: i) The relevant entity that contracts with the provider; ii) The jurisdiction of incorporation of the external service provider; iii) Description of the material commercial contract terms, including any provisions for escalation of fees; iv) Description of any contractual termination and acceleration provisions. 2.4. Financial Functions i. Financial Functions a. In respect of each financial function, a bank (or its group) conducts or undertakes, a bank should provide entity-wise information, covering the activities of the bank and any other material entities as per the Annex-II below. b. Banks are encouraged to add into their core information submission, any other financial functions not listed in Annex-II, if their provision or performance of such functions may be critical to the stability of the financial system and economy more broadly. c. Map each function to its respective material entity and core business line. d. Provide information in relation to the functions performed by the bank’s material entities that are based overseas. 3. Resolution Strategy i. Resolution Strategy Provide views on what the bank considers to be an appropriate resolution strategy for itself and its group along with reasoned justifications. ii. Potential Impediments Elaborate on the potential impediments to the identified resolution strategy as well as how such impediments might be removed (“resolvability assessment”). After identification of a preferred resolution strategy, resolvability assessment is tailored by reference to the pre-conditions for orderly resolution under the preferred resolution strategy. For instance, under a resolution strategy involving bail-in, sufficient loss-absorbing capacity is an important pre-condition for orderly resolution. Therefore, the loss-absorbing capacity and liability structure needs to be assessed in detail as part of a resolvability assessment in those cases where bail-in forms part of the preferred resolution strategy. iii. Regulatory Exemptions/ Special Permissions (if any) Provide the details of major regulatory exemptions/ special permissions (if any) along with an assessment of their financial impact, assuming such exemptions or permissions had not been granted.
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 7 of 11 Annex-II: Detailed Information for Financial Functions Information should be reported separately for each entity, covering the activities of the bank and its material entities. The bank may, where necessary, employ reasonable assumptions to estimate an approximate market share (where such information is sought). The use of such assumptions and how an estimate is reached should be explained in the submission. Function Category Products and Services Required Information A. Deposits 1. Retail deposits: − Current, Savings, time (fixed by maturity) − Conventional and Islamic − PKR and FCY (equivalent to USD) − Active and dormant a. Total deposits, b. Number of accounts, c. Number of depositors, d. Number of accounts, amounts and depositors in different buckets (PKR accounts): i) Up to 1 million, between 1 and 5 million and above 5 million. e. Number of accounts, amounts and depositors in different buckets (FCY accounts equivalent in USD): i) Up to 10 thousand, between 10 to 50 thousand and above 50 thousand. f. Market share estimate. 2. Public Sector Entities’ deposits: − Current, Savings, time (fixed by maturity) − Conventional and Islamic − PKR and FCY (equivalent to USD) − Active and dormant a. Total deposits, b. Number of accounts, c. Number of depositors, d. Number of accounts, amounts and depositors in different buckets (PKR accounts): i) Up to 10 million, between 10 and 100 million and above 100 million. e. Number of accounts, amounts and depositors in different buckets (FCY accounts equivalent in USD): i) Up to 1 million, between 1 to 10 million and above 10 million. f. Market share estimate. 3. Corporate deposits: − Current, Savings, time (fixed by maturity) − Conventional and Islamic − PKR and FCY (equivalent to USD) − Active and dormant a. Total deposits, b. Number of accounts, c. Number of depositors, d. Number of accounts, amounts and depositors in different buckets (PKR accounts): i) Up to 10 million, between 10 and 100 million and above 100 million. e. Number of accounts, amounts and depositors in different buckets (FCY accounts equivalent in USD): i) Up to 1 million, between 1 to 10 million and above 10 million. f. Market share estimate. 4. Deposits Protection Coverage (separately for conventional and Islamic deposits) a. Number of accounts with balances above Deposit Protection Corporation (DPC)’s coverage limit*, b. Number of accounts with balances not more than DPC’s coverage limit*, c. Number of customers with balances above DPC’s coverage limit*, d. Number of customers with balances not more than DPC’s coverage limit*, e. Total deposit liabilities ineligible for DPC’s protection, f. Total deposit liabilities eligible for DPC’s protection (capped at coverage limit per depositor)*. *where DPC applies to the bank.
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 8 of 11 Function Category Products and Services Required Information B. Lending and Loan Servicing
a. Number of borrowers, b. Amount of approved limits, c. Gross outstanding, d. Stage-1 amount and ECL, e. Stage-2 amount and ECL, f. Stage-3 amount and ECL, g. Total ECL/ provision held, h. Net advances, i. Number of Stage-1 borrowers, j. Number of Stage-2 borrowers, k. Number of Stage-3 borrowers, l. Market share. 4. Agriculture advances (separately for conventional and Islamic) a. Funded Exposure: i) Number of borrowers, ii) Amount of approved limits, iii) Gross outstanding, iv) Stage-1 amount and ECL, v) Stage-2 amount and ECL,
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 9 of 11 Function Category Products and Services Required Information B. Lending and Loan Servicing vi) Stage-3 amount and ECL, vii) Total ECL/ provision held, viii) Net advances, ix) Number of Stage-1 borrowers, x) Number of Stage-2 borrowers, xi) Number of Stage-3 borrowers, xii) Market share. b. Non-Funded Exposure: i) Number of borrowers, ii) Amount of approved limits, iii) Amount outstanding. 5. Staff loans a. Gross outstanding, b.Total ECL/ provision held, c. Number of borrowers/ employees, d. Nature of facility. 6. Trade Finance (split further by documentary credit/ collection, bills purchase, bill discounting, guarantees, import & export loans, etc.) a. Total amount, b. Total ECL/ provision held, c. Number of customers, d. Number of accounts, e. Market share. C. Payments, clearing, custody and settlement
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 10 of 11 Function Category Products and Services Required Information C. Payments, clearing, custody and settlement 4. Settlement services: − Provided to Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) − National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) a. Transaction volume and value, broken down by types of securities and currency, b. Users or members of these systems or services, c. Market share estimate. 5. Custody services a. Client assets and money held, lockers, etc., b. Market share estimate. 6. Other related services including third-party operational services (such as collateral management, FMI access for third parties, treasury and cash management services, back office for retail banking) a. Description of service, b. Number of clients, c. Market share estimate. D. Wholesale funding markets
Enclosure to FIRD Circular No. 01 of 2025 Page 11 of 11 Function Category Products and Services Required Information E. Capital markets & Investments 4. Asset Management [e.g. mutual funds, Investor Portfolio Securities (IPS) accounts, any other asset management service, etc.] a. Number of clients, b. Assets under management, c. Market share estimate. 5. Insurance (all policies with bifurcation of life and nonlife insurance) a. Number of policies, b. Premium revenue, c. Market share estimate.