Debt instruments, a major source of public and private investment capital, were virtually missing from Pakistan’s capital market landscape and hampering the country’s economic growth. Pragma, under USAID’s three-year Financial Markets Development (FMD) Activity, effectively supported the development of Pakistan’s nascent debt capital market by positioning financial markets to play a proactive role in resource mobilization to positively impact country’s economic growth. USAID/FMD focused on assisting relevant regulatory institutions in reforming key policies governing the financial sector in Pakistan, with major positive impacts on the business and investment environment.

Galvanizing a coalition of key Government of Pakistan decision-makers and local securities market intermediaries/stakeholders, USAID/FMD experts built consensus and shaped a practical vision of resilient public bond market development. Pragma was instrumental in guiding implementation of this vision through a well-structured and time-framed roadmap, which resulted in the development of a robust and diverse range of public debt instruments catering to varying maturities. This strategic approach supported active secondary market trading and a fully-developed yield curve. Simultaneously, USAID/FMD created additional financing “space” and built institutional capacity to sustainably expand, small and medium enterprise (SME) lending with partner banks through cutting edge cash-flow based lending and product development approaches, buttressed by  USAID/Pakistan’s  Development Credit Authority (DCA) partial guarantee facility.