Q1: As Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at PSX since 2018, what would you consider your most significant achievement in transforming market accessibility?
A1: At PSX, I oversee business development for equity listings and IPOs. Moreover, I lead marketing initiatives at PSX including branding, PR, digital marketing, and building brand equity. I have also been a key player in the cause for sustainability and green branding for the organisation.
A core initiative that I have introduced in terms of enhancing market accessibility is the Financial Literacy Initiative and establishment of market outreach programs. By working at the basic level with various asset classes, I have developed a deep understanding of the importance of financial literacy for the public. Financial literacy is not just for the finance professionals, experts or students; it is for everyone. It is a basic life-skill that should be taught to and learned by everyone who has some level of education and savings.
The activities involved in this Initiative include holding numerous Financial Literacy sessions, webinars and workshops for the general public including students, women, corporate employees, officers, salaried and self-employed individuals. The outreach of these sessions, webinars and workshops is not only limited to the main cities but also the different regions of the country. These nationwide sessions and programs are also focused on women to enable financial empowerment of women across the country. The focus of the sessions is to disseminate awareness about the importance of savings and investment, the different asset classes of investment available in Pakistan, the functions & operations of the Stock Exchange and its role in capital formation as well as the digital tools available for greater understanding and awareness of financial information for the general public.
Furthermore, through digital tools such as the ‘My Portfolio’ virtual trading tool available through the PSX Data Portal (accessible through the PSX website), PSX Glossary and PSX Knowledge Center available on PSX website, users can hone their skills of trading & investing and learn about financial concepts as well as read blogs and articles related to the capital market. These tools serve as mechanisms for learning, enabling greater understanding of the capital market, stock trading and investing.
These steps taken by the Stock Exchange highlight the fact that significant efforts have been made to extend, expand and deepen market outreach. This has enabled a large number of individuals, corporate employees, students and women to benefit and gain accessibility to the capital market.
Q2: How has your diverse experience across financial, IT, and retail sectors shaped your approach to developing PSX’s market strategy?
A2: PSX as a frontline regulator and the national stock exchange of the country is a corporate brand which endeavours to build trustworthiness among all its stakeholders. It is an organisation which essentially works on the B2B platform but is also connected and linked on a B2C level.
Devising a marketing strategy for PSX involved numerous steps. The first step was to pinpoint who is our audience – who are the people who should be interested in the capital market. The next step was to segment this population to reach out to them objectively and convincingly. The third step was to increase our outreach to these segments to market the PSX brand to them; to garner their interest in investing and issuing in the capital market, along with encouraging listed companies to report on sustainability and ESG.
The lead marketing initiatives at PSX include PR, digital marketing, investor education, and branding. As part of my responsibilities, I also look after business development for equity listings and IPOs. At PSX, I have introduced the financial literacy program and advocacy for adoption of sustainability reporting. Moreover, as part of our marketing strategy, we make efforts to enhance PSX’s brand image and maintain top-of-mind awareness. In this regard, we leverage various digital and social media channels. To elevate the marketing and branding of PSX further, we focus on highlighting our unique value propositions, and our leadership in advocating for sustainable and green investments.
My diverse experience across the financial, IT, and retail sectors has shaped my approach to developing the marketing strategy for PSX. The multifaceted background allows me to leverage insights and best practices from each sector to create a comprehensive strategy aimed at attracting a wide range of investors, including high net worth individuals, middle-income earners, salaried professionals, business personnel and self-employed individuals.
Holistically understanding the stakeholder needs in the financial sector, I have gained significant understanding of investor behavior and market dynamics, which helps me to tailor messaging for different audience segments. My experience in retail marketing has honed my skills in consumer engagement, enabling me to craft a strategy that resonates with the various demographics and encourages participation in the capital market.
My IT background, educationally and professionally, allows me to utilise digital marketing tools and analytics. This technological edge is essential for implementing effective strategies across digital and social media platforms, where targeted campaigns can reach potential investors efficiently. By analysing trends, we can refine our outreach efforts, ensuring we engage with individuals in a way that is relevant and compelling.
Giving an overall perspective, by utilising my experience and eye for detail, I have devised a comprehensive marketing strategy for the stock exchange which involves the Financial Literacy Initiative, building brand equity, holding events and engagements, for achieving the experiential marketing impact among others.
Building the PSX brand as a trustworthy, mature, contemporary and digitally savvy brand is one of the major tasks at hand. It also involves Industry Awareness Sessions and other campaigns which we conduct for companies, specially SMEs, to encourage them to list on the Exchange. For building brand equity and top-of-mind awareness of the capital market, I have focused on enhancing PSX’s visibility and reputation through strategic presence, briefings, engaging content on digital platforms, and active social media activity. This consistent messaging helps to build trust and credibility among our stakeholders. We also consistently hold events and ceremonies including gong ceremonies and launch events for new listings, generating media coverage and public interest. Moreover, we have collateral development in the form of prioritised creation of informative brochures, infographics, and other campaigns that effectively communicate the benefits of investing in PSX.
These are some of the activities and practices that we perform in terms of our marketing strategy to attracting a broad spectrum of investors and issuers and positioning the stock exchange as a key player in the capital market landscape.
Q3. Could you elaborate on role the Financial Literacy Initiative in empowering individuals and corporations?
A3. At the core of PSX’s marketing and business development strategy, lies the important Financial Literacy Initiative. It is imperative that the general public, particularly students, employees, self-employed individuals, as well as housewives and women from different strata of society are inculcated with awareness on importance of savings and investment and disseminated information on basics of investing, trading and various financial concepts.
Learning about financial basics, importance of savings, and investment dos and don’ts are essential life-skills that everyone must develop. This will enable individuals to learn how to invest early in order to reap the benefits thereof in the future or post-retirement years or for special life events including arranging funds for education, marriage or healthcare, among others. It is important to send the message across to the general public and teach them about the importance of saving and investing in order to empower them and prepare them to meet the different needs that we face in life. This is exactly what we are doing at PSX. As a frontline regulator and the national stock exchange of the country, we are cognizant of our responsibility to disseminate financial awareness and literacy.
The success of our Financial Literacy Initiative can be gauged from the fact that while we carry out Investor Awareness Sessions as well as Industry Awareness Sessions across the length and breadth of the country, the appetite from the general public for these sessions is evident from the ever-increasing number of enquiries received from different academic institutions and corporates, among others, for the convening of these sessions for their employees and students.
While PSX carries out other efforts, as well, in terms of provision of ease of market access for the public such as the Sahulat Account, Online Account Opening and other such facilities, the Financial Literacy Initiative and its constituent workshops and webinars help to demystify the stock market and enables greater number of investors to participate in investment activities with the right information and knowledge about how the market functions. After the launch of the Sahulat Account, a significant number of accounts have been opened by members of the general public, who otherwise may have found it cumbersome to open a brokerage account. This facility has helped to transform the accessibility to the capital market by the general public in terms of the convenient terms and requirements of this Account. Moreover, the Online Account Opening facility has enabled a large number of people from far-flung areas of the country to open a brokerage account without leaving the comfort of their homes for the main cities.
Q4: What unique barriers do Pakistani women face in stock market participation? How is PSX working to address these and how does your work contribute to promoting gender equality within the financial sector?
A4: In Pakistan, accessibility to financial services by women is relatively limited. This is on account of various socio-economic and cultural barriers whereby women are hesitant to come out in the open and deal with men in terms of handling their financial affairs. There is a culture of “chadar aur char diwari” still prevailing in a large segment of our society. Ofcourse, women have started to participate alongside men and are increasingly contributing to the economy; however, more needs to be done to empower women to come forward and participate in the economic and financial activities. Globally, amongst the total population of men, 74% of men are employed whereas, amongst women, 47% of the women are employed. Moreover, in Pakistan, only 37% of women are part of the workforce. This shows that women are quite under-represented in the economy.
In order to increase accessibility for women in financial services, we at PSX have employed the use of the digital realm to facilitate women and members of our society located in far flung areas of the country. Starting with basic awareness and education, we hold webinars and workshops that are primarily digital focused on disseminating awareness across digital platforms to enable women and everyone else to access financial knowledge at their fingertips. All of this is on the digital platform whereby information is provided in simple words and examples to ensure that this information can be easily acquired by the readers.
Furthermore, we have made significant strides to improve accessibility of women to the stock market with such facilities like the EIPO, Sahulat Account, and the Online Account Opening. While these facilities are for everyone, they facilitate women more so as women in our society stay more within the confines of their homes as compared to men.
As an organisation, Pakistan Stock Exchange is a strong proponent of women empowerment, gender equality, and inclusion. PSX proactively takes steps to ensure that the women employees at work are respected and are given due pay with equal rights in accordance with DEI principles. Furthermore, women employees are provided the necessary encouragement and tools to perform well in their workplace. PSX, as a national financial and corporate organisation, is also a signatory of the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). It supports addressing and resolving the gender gap in the economy whilst aligning itself with the Sustainable Development Goal 5 which seeks to overcome gender gap and inequality in society.
Q5: How is PSX encouraging companies to adopt stronger ESG practices while maintaining market competitiveness?
A5: Amidst the evolving dynamics of ESG, it is imperative to recognize the proactive measures initiated by Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). In response to the growing significance of ESG principles, PSX, under the leadership of its Chairperson, Dr Shamshad Akhtar, established an ESG Task Force. This group is dedicated to exploring the intricacies of ESG practices across diverse sectors, aiming to contribute significantly to the development of a robust ESG framework for the capital market.
Moreover, PSX has held ESG roundtable sessions with representatives from textile, banking, automobile and FMCG sectors to try to develop a greater understanding of the workings of ESG in these sectors which will help in formulating robust ESG guidelines for the capital market.
PSX is not merely a proponent of ESG within its own domain but actively seeks to impart knowledge to corporates and listed companies. Through a series of webinar sessions on ESG, PSX has played an important role to foster a deep understanding of the importance of ESG for industries in Pakistan.
Furthermore, PSX introduced the ESG Primer in April 2024. This is an ESG guide for listed companies to make them understand the intricacies of ESG and report on it in an effective manner.
Recognizing the significance of sustainability globally, PSX has become a member of UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSEI) to carry out sustainability initiatives according to latest trends being followed internationally. PSX organised several workshops in collaboration with UN SSEI for listed companies on Sustainability. In January 2023, PSX also signed the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles to better work on empowering women in its leadership roles and organisational structure in line with SDG and ESG standards on gender equality, diversity and inclusion.
For the PSX Top 25 Companies Awards, PSX gives weightage to ESG by awarding substantial marks to companies competing for the said Awards. These awards are a benchmark of excellence in performance for corporates and industry throughout Pakistan.
In essence, we at PSX are making efforts to encourage adopting sustainable business practices and reporting by the corporates so that Pakistan finds a prominent place for itself in terms of generating interest by global sustainable investments and funds. This will also lead to acceptability from stakeholders of respective industries internationally or regionally, leading to stronger business partnerships of Pakistani businesses with their counterparts abroad.
Q6: What role has technology played in making PSX more accessible to retail investors and how do you foresee the role of digital innovation in shaping the future of financial markets in Pakistan?
A6: Technology has played a significant role in making PSX more accessible to retail investors and there is sufficient promise for the future as well, in terms of digital innovation advancing the accessibility of financial markets. Beginning with the webinars and online sessions which PSX holds regularly to disseminate financial education and awareness, this activity supports accessibility to a large number of (potential) investors to enable them to gain awareness of the stock market. Moreover, investors can access the Knowledge Center and PSX Glossary to gain the necessary financial knowledge through articles and blogs in the former and learn about the financial concepts & definitions through the latter. Investors can also access the ‘My Portfolio’ virtual trading platform available on the PSX Data Portal (accessible through the PSX website) whereby investors can learn the ropes of investing using virtual cash while investing in real time on the stock market. Ofcourse, to access market information, we have the dedicated PSX Data Portal which is a useful portal from which one can download reports and avail the various information regarding the stock market.
In order to enhance accessibility to the stock market, we have the Sahulat Account and the Online Account Opening facility to enable investors to open their accounts in the stock market digitally from their electronic devices with the Sahulat Account employing minimal documentation. The Sahulat Account is specially useful to enable access to the stock market to students and housewives. For Millennials and Gen Z, who usually utilise services via the digital platform, the Online Account Opening and EIPO facilities as well as educational tools such as Knowledge Center, Glossary and My Portfolio, are particularly useful.
We have also introduced the Online Only Broker facility which is a fully digitised platform for provision of brokerage facilities whereby a start-up, fintech, or an entrepreneur can provide brokerage services as an Online Only Broker entailing low financial requirements and operational costs with no need for a physical office as well. This will go a long way in enabling the foundation for other digital services such as those in the AI realm facilitating robo-advisory and other digital financial services through the capital market ecosystem or market participants & stakeholders.
Q7: How does your role as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) influence your strategic approach to positioning PSX on the global stage?
A7: Being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) has enabled me to equip myself with what is happening in Marketing on a global level. It has facilitated greater understanding of and higher learning of the different marketing techniques, tools and implements that are being practiced globally.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing, while being a UK based organisation, is essentially a kind of melting pot where ideas from all over the world meet in terms of enhancing and advancing the marketing field. It is a rich resource of trends, ideas, libraries and sources which I can utilise, curate, and refine to suit our local financial marketing needs.
The success of our Financial Literacy Initiative can be gauged from the fact that while we carry out Investor Awareness Sessions as well as Industry Awareness Sessions across the length and breadth of the country, the appetite from the general public for these sessions is evident from the ever-increasing number of enquiries received from different academic institutions and corporates, among others, for the convening of these sessions for their employees and students. There is still a lot of ground that needs to be covered to make the program a successful one as more of the public learn about the capital market and become part of the market as investors direct or through mutual funds or Exchange Traded Funds.
