{"id":105944,"date":"2026-07-01T12:54:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/?p=105944"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:54:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:54:57","slug":"sbp-directs-banks-to-avoid-freezing-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sbp-directs-banks-to-avoid-freezing-accounts.html","title":{"rendered":"SBP orders banks to avoid unnecessary account freezes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed banks across the country not to freeze or restrict customer accounts without lawful authority, proper verification and approval from a competent authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The central bank issued the instructions in compliance with court directives, requiring banks to ensure that even precautionary or unintentional restrictions do not cause unnecessary hardship to account holders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the new guidelines, banks may impose debit blocks, operational restrictions or account freezes only where such action is supported by law. The SBP said any restriction on a customer&#8217;s account must be based on clear legal authority and implemented only after appropriate verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/teenagers-allowed-to-operate-bank-accounts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SBP allows teenagers to operate bank accounts independently<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Banks have also been instructed to establish internal compliance mechanisms to ensure the directives are fully implemented and to prevent unauthorised restrictions on customer accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the SBP, these internal systems should safeguard account holders from unnecessary financial losses or inconvenience caused by precautionary measures taken without legal basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The directives follow a ruling by the Islamabad High Court, which held that banks cannot freeze customer accounts without legal authority or the approval of a competent authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court, through Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, directed the SBP to formulate an internal mechanism and issue the necessary instructions to commercial banks. The central bank subsequently submitted its compliance report to the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed banks across the country not to freeze or restrict customer accounts without lawful authority, proper verification and approval from a competent authority. The central bank issued the instructions in compliance with court directives, requiring banks to ensure that even precautionary or unintentional restrictions do not cause unnecessary hardship to account holders. Under the new guidelines, banks may impose debit blocks, operational restrictions or account freezes only where such action is supported by law. The SBP said any restriction on a customer&#8217;s account must be based on clear legal authority and implemented only after appropriate verification. Read: SBP allows teenagers to operate bank accounts independently Banks have also been instructed to establish internal compliance mechanisms to ensure the directives are fully implemented and to prevent unauthorised restrictions on customer accounts. According to the SBP, these internal systems should safeguard account holders from unnecessary financial losses or inconvenience caused by precautionary measures taken without legal basis. The directives follow a ruling by the Islamabad High Court, which held that banks cannot freeze customer accounts without legal authority or the approval of a competent authority. The court, through Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, directed the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":76277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15017],"tags":[74515,74317,74511,74508,60635,23820,74510,74513,62788,2308,74509,69526,6066,2631],"persona":[],"class_list":["post-105944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-notices-announcements","tag-account-freezes","tag-bank-accounts","tag-banking-compliance","tag-banking-regulations","tag-banking-sector","tag-commercial-banks","tag-customer-rights","tag-debit-blocks","tag-financial-services","tag-islamabad-high-court","tag-legal-authority","tag-pakistan-banking","tag-sbp","tag-state-bank-of-pakistan","cat-15017-id"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SBP directs banks to avoid freezing accounts - Zameen News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These internal systems should safeguard account holders from unnecessary financial losses or inconvenience caused by precautionary...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sbp-directs-banks-to-avoid-freezing-accounts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SBP directs banks to avoid freezing accounts - Zameen News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These internal systems should safeguard account holders from unnecessary financial losses or inconvenience caused by precautionary...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sbp-directs-banks-to-avoid-freezing-accounts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pakistan Real Estate News &amp; 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