KARACHI: SBP Deputy Governor Saeed Ahmed while chairing first meeting of the Steering Committee of Mortgage Refinance Company (MRC) held at State Bank of Pakistan said a number of facts are halting growth in housing finance including legal and operational obstacles and non-availability of long-term liquidity.
The meeting was also attended by other members of the Committee including executives of MRC’s equity holder banks/DFIs, representative from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Housing & Works, and an industry specialist from IFC. The committee would steer the process of incorporation of MRC expeditiously in a planned manner. Further, the Steering Committee will also be responsible to discuss pre-and post-incorporation formalities for the MRC.
Saeed Ahmad highlighted the fact that Pakistan is far behind in terms of mortgage finance to GDP ratio even within the region. He emphasized on need of development of housing sector because of its forward and backward linkages with more than 40 allied industries. He further mentioned that realizing its significance, the federal government and State Bank of Pakistan are taking various steps for promotion and development of housing finance. While other key issues including foreclosure laws, land record system, stamp duties etc are being handled separately by the concerned quarters, formation of MRC under public-private-partnership model, would help in provision of long term funding to primary mortgage market and development of secondary market in Pakistan by adopting appropriate refinancing models.
Saeed Ahmad clarified MRC will also help in development of capital markets by issuance of corporate bonds/TFCs/Sukuks.
Deputy Governor set end-December 2014 as the deadline to incorporate MRC with SECP.
