SBP Asks TAG to Refund Outstanding Funds to Customers Over Regulatory Violations

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Thursday advised TAG Innovation Pvt. Ltd to refund all outstanding funds to its wallet holders immediately. FinTech startup TAG, currently in the pilot stage of the Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licensing process, has been asked to ensure that all refund all wallet holders no later than August 19, 2022. In a statement, the central bank said that the action has been taken after the identification of violations of SBP’s regulatory requirements and other concerns during the pilot operations of the company. Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) licenses are issued by SBP to non-bank entities in three stages i.e. in-principle approval, pilot operations approval, and commercial operations approval. Moreover, the pilot operation is conducted to assess the readiness of the business for commercial operations, and only after its successful completion, a license to commence commercial operations is granted to the respective EMI. TAG is Pakistan’s first digital retail bank that allows customers to open a bank account and access banking services online. The financial technology startup had raised more than $12 million in Pakistan’s largest seed funding round last year in September, pushing the startup’s total financing to over $17.5 million.