A US-backed mediation model, a Singapore success story, and a chairman who says litigation is no longer the first option — Pakistan’s financial sector is getting its own dispute resolution hub
If you’ve ever had a dispute with a bank, broker, or insurance company in Pakistan and felt like there was nowhere fast or fair to turn — that’s about to change. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has moved closer to establishing the country’s first dedicated Financial Services Dispute Resolution Centre, a proposed independent institution designed to make resolving financial disputes faster, cheaper, and far less of a headache than the courts.
To advance the plan, SECP partnered with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program and Singapore’s Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre, holding a stakeholder consultation in Islamabad this week. It’s a clear signal that Pakistan is finally building the kind of dedicated financial complaints infrastructure that countries like Singapore have relied on for years.
What This Centre Will Actually Do
The proposed centre will operate as an independent, not-for-profit institution under SECP oversight — meaning it won’t be a government department in the traditional sense, but a specialized body designed purely to settle disputes.
It will function as a one-stop platform for consumers, investors, banks, insurers, and other financial institutions to resolve complaints and disagreements without having to drag every case through the courts. For ordinary investors who’ve struggled with slow-moving litigation or unclear complaint channels, that’s the part that matters most.
Who Was in the Room
This wasn’t a closed-door bureaucratic meeting. The consultation pulled in a genuinely wide range of stakeholders — representatives from the judiciary, financial regulators, and major market institutions including the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Pakistan Mercantile Exchange, Central Depository Company, National Clearing Company of Pakistan, the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan, and the Insurance Association of Pakistan.
SECP Commissioner Muzzafar Ahmed Mirza opened the session with a point that frames the entire initiative: the strength of a financial system isn’t just measured by how smoothly it runs day to day, but by how well it handles things when they go wrong. He stressed that accessible, timely dispute resolution is central to building public trust in financial markets — and trust, more than almost anything else, is what keeps people willing to invest.
Learning From Singapore’s Playbook
Officials from Singapore’s FIDReC shared how their own dispute resolution model has worked in practice, and described it as a system that could be adapted for Pakistan’s financial sector. Singapore’s approach has long been held up internationally as an example of how mediation-first dispute resolution can cut down on costly, drawn-out litigation while still delivering fair outcomes for consumers.
Representatives from the U.S. Commercial Law Development Program also shared their own international experience with dispute-resolution reform, and reaffirmed their commitment to helping SECP build the institutional framework and the internal capacity the new centre will need to actually function once it’s up and running.
The Chairman’s Bigger Vision
SECP Chairman Dr. Kabir Ahmed Sidhu closed the consultation with a statement that captures where Pakistan’s financial regulator wants this to go. He said mediation has shifted globally — from being treated as a last resort when all else fails, to becoming the preferred first step in resolving disputes.
He added that legislative backing and judicial support for mandatory mediation could meaningfully cut litigation costs, speed up recoveries, strengthen enforcement outcomes, and build stronger investor confidence across the board. That’s not a small ambition — it’s essentially proposing a cultural shift in how financial disputes get handled in Pakistan.
Government Backing Goes Beyond SECP
This isn’t just a regulator-led initiative operating in isolation. Federal Secretary for Law and Justice Raja Naeem Akbar attended the consultation and gave the proposal his full support. He went further, suggesting the same reform model should be replicated by provincial governments — turning this from a financial-sector-specific fix into a broader template for dispute resolution nationwide.
That kind of cross-government buy-in matters. A dispute resolution centre that only exists on paper, without legislative and judicial support behind it, tends to struggle. Early signs here suggest the foundation is being built with that broader backing in mind.
What Happens Next
Participants at the consultation expressed broad support for the proposed centre and stressed that continued stakeholder engagement will be key as Pakistan moves forward. No firm launch date has been announced yet — this remains a consultation and framework-building phase rather than an operational rollout.
For now, the message from SECP is clear: Pakistan’s financial sector is getting closer to having a dedicated, independent place to take complaints — one designed to resolve disputes faster and more affordably than the court system ever could. Whether it delivers on that promise will depend on how quickly the framework moves from consultation to reality, and whether the legislative and judicial support Dr. Sidhu called for actually materializes.