SBP P-FII Report Reveals Critical Gap Between Banking ‘Access’ & ‘Service Quality’

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) launched the Pakistan Financial Inclusion Index (P-FII) yesterday, offering the first comprehensive look at the country’s financial landscape. The headline number shows steady progress, with the overall index hitting 58.1 for 2024, a 6% increase from the previous year.

However, a deeper dive into the data reveals a significant disparity. While Pakistan has successfully built a robust financial infrastructure, the quality of services provided to customers is lagging far behind.

The Disconnect: Infrastructure vs. Experience

The P-FII measures financial inclusion across three dimensions: Access, Usage, and Quality. The 2024 results highlight a massive divide between the availability of banking services and the quality of user experience.

Access scored a strong 72.3. This sub-index tracks supply-side initiatives, such as the number of bank branches, ATMs, digital access points, and active mobile money agents. Essentially, the “pipes” for financial transactions are well-laid and accessible.

In sharp contrast, Quality scored only 43.9. This dimension measures customer-centric factors, including financial literacy, the effectiveness of grievance redressal mechanisms, and inequality in service distribution.

2024 SBP P-FII Score Breakdown

The following table illustrates the gap between the physical reach of the financial sector and the depth of its service quality.

Dimension	2023 Score	2024 Score	What It Measures
Access	68.0	72.3	Physical & Digital infrastructure availability
Usage	59.7	62.5	Active accounts, credit & payment usage
Quality	40.1	43.9	Consumer protection, literacy & service standard

The Usage dimension, which carries the highest weight of 40%, sits in the middle with a score of 62.5. This indicates that while people have accounts, 67% of the adult population is banked, active utilisation is growing but has not yet peaked.

A Tool for Targeted Policy

The SBP developed the P-FII under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2024-28 to move beyond simple account ownership statistics. The index utilises 69 indicators aligned with international best practices.

Each indicator is benchmarked against a target value for 2030, which represents full financial inclusion. The current results suggest that while the SBP has successfully expanded access, future policy interventions must prioritise consumer protection and service quality to close the gap.

Moving forward, the SBP will release these results annually in the first quarter of each year, using the index as a core tool to monitor progress.