If you bank with HBL, getting started on the Pakistan Stock Exchange no longer requires a visit to a broker’s office. HBL says its mobile app can now set up a PSX trading account on the spot, in a few minutes, with no forms to fill in.
The accounts are held with AKD Securities Ltd., which partnered with the bank for the feature. HBL calls itself the first commercial bank in the country to do this. Two regulators and market bodies backed the launch: the SECP, which oversees securities, and the NCCPL, which clears and settles trades on the exchange.
Until now a new investor typically went through a broker directly before buying a first share. The new route puts that step beside the banking tools customers already use. The two were linked before in a narrower way: HBL’s page for overseas Pakistanis with Roshan Digital Accounts lists AKD Securities among the brokers they can use to buy PSX shares.
HBL’s CEO Muhammad Nassir Salim, AKD Group chairman Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, AKD Securities chairperson Hina Dhedi Junaid and NCCPL chief executive Naveed Qazi were present when the launch was marked.
The announcement gives no fee, no account limit and no date for a wider rollout, and does not say what identity checks the app runs while you sign up. It also does not say whether other brokers will be added, or whether every HBL Mobile user sees the option from day one.
Anyone interested should look for the option inside the HBL Mobile app and confirm the broker’s charges before funding the account, since neither has been published.
This story is based on a press release issued by the company
