KARACHI: In view of increasing global and domestic cyber threats and related challenges to the financial ecosystem, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched ‘Cyber Shield-the Cyber Resilience Strategy for Regulated Entities’, a major initiative aimed at strengthening the safety and robustness of the country’s banking and financial system.
According to SBP, the strategy is designed to better protect banks and financial institutions from cyber threats, thus ensuring that people and businesses can continue to access financial services safely. It sets out a clear roadmap to help financial institutions strengthen their systems and controls, prevent cyber incidents, respond quickly when cyber threats materialize, and recover effectively from such incidents.
As the banking ecosystem faces increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the strategy aims to enhance cyber defences of the regulated entities through a holistic, forward-looking and collaborative approach. It focuses on five key priorities: strengthening the ability of banks to withstand cyber incidents, improving governance and accountability for cybersecurity, encouraging cooperation and information-sharing across the financial sector, building skilled cyber talent, and continuously updating security practices to keep pace with new risks.
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The SBP will closely monitor both global and domestic cyber developments and will update the strategy as needed to address emerging threats. By strengthening cyber resilience across the banking sector, SBP aims to safeguard customers, support digital innovation in a secure environment and ensure financial stability.
The strategy is a major initiative aimed at strengthening the safety and robustness of the country’s banking and financial system. It is designed to better protect banks and financial institutions from cyber threats, thus ensuring that people and businesses can continue to access financial services safely.
It sets out a clear roadmap to help financial institutions strengthen their systems and controls, prevent cyber incidents, respond quickly when cyber threats materialize, and recover effectively from such incidents.
The milestones laid down in the strategy will be implemented in a phased manner by 2030. All regulated entities are required to align their internal cybersecurity programs with the strategy to ensure compliance.
It may be mentioned here that, in the present hyper-connected global economy, digital transformation presents both unprecedented opportunities and complex risks.
Accordingly, the purpose of this cyber resilience strategy is to ensure a comprehensive, holistic, and integrated approach that enables regulated entities to continuously adapt and respond to the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape, and to enhance the ability to protect systems from cyber-attacks, and to resume business operations quickly in case of a successful cyber-attack.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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