Pakistan's Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases approved the Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026 on Friday 13 November. The foreign exchange amendment bill revises the penalties and fines for breaking the country's foreign exchange rules, and the same meeting cleared changes to laws administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The committee, chaired by Law and Justice Minister Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar, sends the approved drafts on to the relevant forums for further consideration. Neither is law yet.

What the foreign exchange amendment bill changes

According to APP and Profit, the bill seeks to revise the legal framework for penalties and financial fines for violations of foreign exchange regulations. These are the rules the State Bank of Pakistan applies to anyone who buys, sells, sends or holds foreign currency, which includes banks, exchange companies and the payment firms that move remittances into Pakistan.

What has not been published yet:

  • the text of the bill

  • which offences are covered

  • the new fine amounts, or how they compare with the current ones

  • when the bill will go to Parliament

Until Parliament passes it, the existing penalties stay in force.

What changes in the SECP-administered laws

The committee also approved a proposal concerning laws administered by the SECP. Under it, references to the federal government in various laws within the SECP's administrative jurisdiction would be replaced with references to the relevant competent authorities.

The reports do not list which laws are affected or which authorities would take over each reference. That detail matters, because it decides who signs off on decisions that today sit with the federal government.

What else the committee decided

The meeting also approved payments for unused leave before retirement in the armed forces, and a package moving plant protection functions to the National Agriculture Trade and Food Safety Authority. It deferred the draft Press Council of Pakistan Act 2026 for further consultation.

Why it matters for fintech and payments companies

  • Remittance and cross-border payment firms work inside foreign exchange rules every day. A change to penalties changes the cost of getting compliance wrong, so it is worth tracking the bill's text when it is published.

  • SECP-regulated fintechs, such as digital lenders and investment platforms, should watch which authorities replace the federal government in their governing laws, since that can change who approves what.

  • It lands in the same week the State Bank raised the cash transaction reporting threshold to Rs3 million, another change to the compliance rules banks and payment companies follow.

We will update this story when the bill's text or a date for Parliament is published.