As consumer behavior shifts, digital businesses scale, and expectations around speed, transparency, and access continue to rise, the country’s financial infrastructure must evolve to keep pace. Open Banking is a critical part of that evolution.

We’re proud to share that Neem has been selected by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for its first Open Banking Regulatory Sandbox cohort.

This milestone signals the evolution of the country’s financial system and positions Neem at the forefront of building secure, scalable, and reliable payment infrastructure that will support businesses, empower individuals, and unlock broader financial inclusion across Pakistan.

Why Open Banking matters for Pakistan?

At its core, Open Banking is about secure, consent-based access to financial data and payment rails. But its real impact goes far beyond APIs or integrations.

For Pakistan, Open Banking has the potential to:

• Enable more inclusive financial products for individuals and businesses
• Reduce friction in payments and financial services
• Encourage competition and innovation in a regulated, trusted way
• Move the ecosystem away from fragmented, manual processes
• Create infrastructure that supports scale, resilience, and transparency

In emerging markets like Pakistan, Open Banking is not a “nice to have.”

It is foundational infrastructure for the next phase of digital growth

What the Regulatory Sandbox enables?

The State Bank of Pakistan’s Open Banking Regulatory Sandbox is designed to allow carefully selected participants to test real use cases in a live, regulated environment, under the regulator’s oversight.

This approach ensures that new financial infrastructure is built responsibly, aligned with regulatory standards from the start and tested against real-world complexity. It also strengthens trust across the ecosystem by allowing innovation and regulation to move forward together.

Being part of SBP’s first cohort reflects strong alignment between Neem’s long-term vision and the regulator’s direction for the country’s financial system.

What this means for Neem?

Neem was built on the belief that Open Banking is not a feature, but essential infrastructure.

Participation in the sandbox allows us to work closely with the regulator to test high-impact payment and financial wellness use cases in a controlled environment, while helping shape standards that can scale safely across the ecosystem.

It also reinforces our role as a full-stack payments infrastructure focused on building systems that businesses can rely on, not just products that solve narrow problems.

Over time, Open Banking-led infrastructure can enable faster, more transparent payments, better access to financial services, and stronger foundations for financial wellness across Pakistan.

For businesses, this means less operational friction and more predictable money movement and increased access, trust, and control fro individuals.

We’re grateful to the State Bank of Pakistan for the trust placed in Neem as part of its first Open Banking Regulatory Sandbox cohort and for the continued partnership in shaping Pakistan’s financial infrastructure.

As we move forward, our focus remains on building secure, scalable payment systems that businesses can rely on and that support greater financial inclusion across the country. This milestone is an important step and the beginning of what Open Banking can unlock for Pakistan.

🤙 If you’re a startup or an enterprise looking for a one-stop platform to collect, send, and manage payments, connect with us today. https://www.neem.io/partner-with-neem