Asaan Connect: One Platform to Access Pakistan’s Capital Market

As part of its mission to promote investor facilitation and expand access to capital market services, the Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDC) has rebranded its Centralized Gateway Portal (CGP) as Asaan Connect — a smarter, more inclusive platform for onboarding investors across stock market, mutual funds, insurance and takaful. The rebranding reflects a refreshed identity, an intuitive design, and a seamless digital experience shaped by extensive stakeholder feedback. Asaan Connect is an advanced digital platform, designed to revolutionize the way investors engage with the Pakistan Capital Market. With a focus on simplicity, speed, and security, Asaan Connect transforms the investor onboarding journey into a hassle-free and efficient experience. It enables investors to complete their KYC process just once, removing the need for extensive paperwork and physical visits. Asaan Connect stems from months of market research, stakeholder engagement, and user feedback. It reflects a broader vision rooted in customer centricity, accessibility, and digital ease — aiming to empower investors with one unified onboarding experience across diverse capital market sectors. It also marks a strategic shift toward a more intuitive, relatable identity that resonates with today’s digitally savvy investors. Asaan Connect signals CDC’s commitment to modernization and its role in making capital market access simpler and more inclusive. The core idea behind this platform is to provide investors with a simplified, consistent way to complete the onboarding process — a crucial first step before they can begin investing. At the core of this digitization is the KYC onboarding process. ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) is a regulatory requirement that involves verifying an individual’s identity before they can access financial services. Through Asaan Connect, investors can complete their KYC digitally — by submitting their CNIC and supporting documents — enabling swift and secure account opening without the need for in-person interactions or manual form submissions. This ensures compliance, enhances trust, and allows for a seamless start to the investor journey. Asaan Connect puts choice and accessibility at the forefront, offering investors a single, unified platform to complete their onboarding journey and access a wide range of licensed institutions — all without redundant KYC or switching platforms. Investors can: Asaan Connect enables secure, end-to-end digital onboarding within minutes — eliminating delays and lowering entry barriers. CDC applies the same level of protection to customer information and documents submitted through Asaan Connect as it does to the assets it safeguards as custodian. All data is collected digitally, with documents submitted in soft form to streamline the experience. The platform is integrated with key verification utilities such as NADRA, the Pakistan Mobile Database, and SBP’s RAAST system to enable real-time identity verification and KYC. Information flows electronically between CDC and intermediaries via secure linkages, with no manual intervention involved. To make the onboarding process faster, Asaan Connect has introduced a feature through which connected intermediaries can upload standard documents required for onboarding on the portal such as Commission Structure, Risk Disclosure, Standardized Terms & conditions, etc. These documents will be available for view and acceptance by the customer on the portal, hence ensuring that Asaan Connect is a one stop platform to meet all onboarding requirements. Moreover, if the customers update their profile, all the selected intermediaries are updated simultaneously, adding to the customer centricity of Asaan Connect. Tutorial videos have also been developed and the portal encompasses helpful guides and tool tips for customers’ ease. Pakistan’s investor base remains under-penetrated — with less than 1% of the population actively investing in capital markets. Platforms like Asaan Connect lowers the barrier to entry, especially for young, digital-first investors seeking ease, speed, and credibility. With the stock market reaching new highs, mutual fund AUMs growing steadily, and InsurTech gaining traction, now is the time to equip the market with infrastructure that delivers on access, scale, and trust. For CDC guidelines or induction queries: 0800-23275 or email at [email protected] Follow CDC on social media to stay updated.