DIB arranges $1 billion sovereign financing for Pakistan

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the world’s first Islamic bank and the largest in the UAE, has announced the successful completion of a landmark $1 billion syndicated term-finance facility for the Government of Pakistan, arranged in collaboration with a consortium of regional and international financial institutions. The five-year facility is an innovative transaction, partially guaranteed by a Policy-Based Guarantee (PBG) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) — marking the first PBG transaction of its kind undertaken by ADB for the country.

The Islamic tranche, structured as an AAOIFI-compliant Commodity Murabaha, represents approximately 89% of the total facility which reflects the growing demand for Shariah-based financing and supports Pakistan’s strategic objective of expanding Islamic finance.

DIB acted as the Sole Islamic Global Coordinator and alongside Standard Chartered also served as the Joint Mandated Lead Arranger and Bookrunner. Other leading Islamic banks from the region included Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ajman Bank and Sharjah Islamic Bank.

Minister of Finance, Government of Pakistan Muhammad Aurangzeb, stated that: “This landmark financing arrangement not only underscores the strong confidence of regional and international financial institutions in Pakistan’s economic reform trajectory, but also marks an important step in expanding our access to innovative and Shariah-compliant funding solutions. We deeply value the role of partners like DIB and ADB in supporting our efforts to ensure macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth.”