Roshan Digital Account: How Overseas Pakistanis Invest in PSX
For years, investing in the Pakistan Stock Exchange from abroad meant paperwork, attestation queues and a helpful relative in Karachi. The Roshan Digital Account (RDA) changed that. Launched by the State Bank of Pakistan in 2020, it lets Non-Resident Pakistanis open a Pakistani bank account entirely online, activate a stock-market investment account on top of it, and buy PSX-listed shares from anywhere in the world...
This guide walks through the entire chain: what the RDA actually is, who qualifies, how the Roshan Equity Investment account connects you to a broker and CDC, how funding, taxes and repatriation work, and the practical snags that slow people down. It is written for an overseas Pakistani starting from zero — but also for the foreign national or foreign company now drawn in by the 2026 expansion of the framework.
Key takeaways The RDA is a fully digital, remote account chain: RDA bank account → Roshan Equity Investment → brokerage → CDC custody account. No visit to Pakistan, embassy or branch is required. Eligibility covers Non-Resident Pakistanis (Pakistani passport, NICOP or POC holders), and has recently been expanded to foreign nationals and foreign companies. The tax regime is simplified: dividends and capital gains are...
A fourth name enters the picture the moment you place a trade: NCCPL, the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited, which registers your Unique Identification Number (UIN) and computes the capital gains tax that is collected at source. So while people talk loosely about "opening an RDA to buy shares," what you are actually assembling is a small chain of connected accounts, each run by a different institution, e...
What the Roshan Digital Account is The RDA is a State Bank of Pakistan initiative operated through commercial banks. It gives non-residents a Pakistani bank account, opened digitally, that can hold both foreign currency and rupees, and that plugs into a menu of investment products: Naya Pakistan Certificates (government securities), Roshan Equity Investment (PSX shares), Roshan Pension Plan, property and car financi...
Two design choices make it work for overseas investors: