KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Friday stopped operations of M/s TAG Innovation Pvt Ltd as Electronic Money Institution (EMI) for violation of regulatory requirements.

According to the SBP, it has revoked the in-principal approval and pilot operations approval granted to M/s TAG Innovation Pvt Ltd to operate as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) with immediate effect as per the applicable laws.

The SBP has taken this decision to protect the interests of public at large after identifying violation of its regulatory requirements and other concerns during the pilot operations of the company. EMIs are entities that offer innovative, user-friendly and cost-effective low value digital payment instruments such as wallets, prepaid cards and contactless payment instruments.

M/s TAG has been advised to close all customers’ wallets and remove their application from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store and any other platform with immediate effect.

Earlier, in August, the SBP informed public about the regulatory action taken against M/s TAG. The SBP on August 4, 2022 advised M/s TAG Innovation, currently in pilot stage of EMI licensing process, to refund all outstanding funds to its wallet holders immediately but no later than August 19, 2022.

This action was taken after identification of violations of SBP’s regulatory requirements and other concerns during the pilot operations of M/s TAG. EMIs licenses are issued by the SBP to non-bank entities in three stages, ie, In-Principle Approval, Pilot Operations Approval and Commercial Operations Approval.

Moreover, pilot operation is conducted to assess the readiness of the business for commercial operations and only after its successful completion, license to commence commercial operations is granted to the respective EMI.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022