The cash reporting threshold for Pakistani banks has gone up from Rs2 million to Rs3 million. The State Bank of Pakistan told the institutions it regulates in BPRD Circular Letter No. 24 of 2026, dated 12 November, that a currency transaction report (CTR) is now needed only for cash transactions of Rs3 million or more, with immediate effect.

The circular passes on a Finance Ministry notification dated 11 November. Nukta reported that the notification amends SRO 73(I)/2015, the January 2015 order that set the old Rs2 million line.

What the cash reporting threshold covers

A CTR is a routine filing to the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), Pakistan's financial intelligence unit, under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010. It is not an accusation, and the customer is not told. Banks, microfinance banks, exchange companies and other reporting entities file one for cash deposits, withdrawals and similar cash dealings at or above the threshold, according to Profit and the FMU's filing guidelines. Nukta reported that CTRs are due no later than seven working days after the transaction.

The change does not touch suspicious transaction reports (STRs). Those are filed when an institution sees something suspicious, whatever the amount. A customer who splits cash into smaller deposits to stay under Rs3 million should still be caught by an STR.

Why the line moved

Neither the SBP circular nor the notification gives a reason. Profit reported that the National Executive Committee on AML/CFT, chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, approved the change in October, and that it is the first change in almost 12 years.

Profit's figures suggest why. The FMU received about 707,000 CTRs in 2016 and 4.6 million in 2022, against roughly 24,000 STRs in 2022. Prices have roughly tripled since 2015 by Profit's calculation, so a fixed Rs2 million line caught more ordinary transactions every year. In real terms, Profit says, the new Rs3 million threshold is about half the old one.

What it means for banks and fintechs

For compliance teams at banks, microfinance banks and exchange companies, the immediate job is to update monitoring rules so routine cash transactions between Rs2 million and Rs3 million no longer generate a CTR. Record keeping does not change: Nukta notes that transaction records and CTR and STR records must still be kept for at least 10 years.

The same October meeting also added the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) to the Act's list of regulators, Profit reported. That matters for anyone applying under PVARA's licensing rulebook, since anti-money laundering duties will sit alongside the licence. For individuals, our guide to a bank account blocked after a P2P crypto trade explains how suspicious transaction monitoring plays out in practice.

The government has not said when the threshold will next be reviewed.