HBL's Sultan Ali Allana to chair SCO Interbank Consortium as Pakistan takes 2026-27 lead

Pakistan has taken the chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Interbank Consortium for 2026-27, putting HBL chairman Sultan Ali Allana at the head of the bloc's main platform for financial collaboration, the Ministry of Finance said.

The nomination was made at the consortium's annual council meeting on 2 July 2026 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and coincides with Pakistan's own chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State, which it assumes in September 2026. The finance ministry congratulated Allana and said Pakistan would work to strengthen economic partnerships among member states, ease cross-border trade and investment, and push regional integration.

The consortium brings together banks from SCO member states to channel cooperation with multilateral institutions, lift regional trade and investment, and look for new ways to finance large transnational projects. HBL, Pakistan's largest bank, joined as a partner bank on 8 August 2014 and became a member bank at the 14th annual council meeting in June 2018.

For Pakistan, the chairmanship hands its biggest lender a seat at the centre of a grouping that spans Central Asia, China and Russia at a time when cross-border payment links and development finance are moving up the regional agenda. The finance ministry framed the role as a chance to deepen economic ties across the bloc.