Thought Behind Things · Oct 13, 2021 · 53:26
Why only 0.1% of Pakistan invests in stocks
Ali Farid Khwaja, chairman of KTrade and a former top-ranked European technology analyst, explains why Pakistan's capital markets were built for institutions and the rich, what it takes to open up that game to the rest of the country, and why he treats unregulated crypto as his real competition.
with Ali Farid Khwaja
10 min read
A Rhodes Scholar’s detour back to Pakistan
The episode opens with Muzamil framing the problem his own generation refuses to solve. Going down to the Islamabad Stock Exchange, filling in paperwork, sitting across from a broker — that, he says, is something his father can do, not him. Someone from Ali Farid Khwaja’s team reached out, and Muzamil treated it as the right opportunity to ask what KTrade is actually doing about that gap.
Before any of that, he asks for the journey. Ali Farid Khwaja’s CV is unusually compact. Saint Mary’s Academy in Rawalpindi, then LUMS for a double major in computer science and economics, graduating in 2003. A master’s in economics from LUMS the year after, then the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford for a master’s in financial economics. He joined UBS in 2006 on the investment banking side, covering the European technology sector — Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel — at a time when those were among the largest companies on the continent. From there he moved to a hedge fund investing in emerging markets across Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan; then to Berenberg from 2009 to 2014 covering Apple and Samsung, where he was ranked the top technology analyst in Europe. He became CFO of one of the companies he had covered — a London-listed payment processor that handled the credit card page on airlines like Thai Airways — before joining Autonomous Research, an Alliance Bernstein company, as a partner.
Muzamil pushes on the obvious question. Why come back. “Pakistan was as a technology analyst,” Ali Farid Khwaja explains. When he was CFO at Safecharge, the company had $250 million in cash and made acquisitions in Singapore, Tel Aviv, Dublin and Germany. Pakistan, a market of 220 million people, had nothing to acquire. “I said there cannot be a better opportunity than this. Go yourself and create it, and then you will sell to those same companies you used to work at.” Safecharge, where he had been CFO, was eventually acquired for a billion dollars. He knew, on the inside, that all of those firms would eventually want a Pakistan story.
The 0.1% problem
The headline number lands early and the rest of the conversation orbits around it. At the time KTrade launched, around 250,000 people in Pakistan invested in stocks — roughly 0.1% of the population. Bangladesh, Ali Farid Khwaja notes, is at one to two percent. The US and UK sit between sixty and seventy percent. Everyone else in Pakistan was invested by proxy, whether they knew it or not. “People put money in banks, banks invest. People give money to insurance companies, insurance companies invest. It became a product for the rich and the large institutions.”
That is the wedge. As an investor, he tells Muzamil, you go where things are broken, where no one else is looking. That is where the returns live. Pakistan is the sixth largest country in the world by population, with a market that is under-penetrated in nearly every category that matters. If stock participation moves from 0.1% to 1%, that is a ten-times increase without anything else changing. Global technology companies are chasing growth, and growth lives in under-penetrated markets. The trade was obvious to him because he had spent fifteen years pricing exactly that kind of trade for someone else.
KASB, KTrade, and the inverted brand story
Muzamil’s mental model is that KASB was a bank that drifted into securities. Ali Farid Khwaja corrects him cleanly. KASB was the oldest capital markets business in Pakistan, founded in 1952 — a founding member of the Lahore and Dhaka stock exchanges, and Merrill Lynch’s partner in Pakistan until 2015. The bank, the insurance and the asset management businesses came later, ran into problems, and the bank was force-merged with another institution. In 2018 Ali Farid Khwaja relaunched the brand from scratch.
The bet was that the absence of legacy infrastructure was a feature, not a bug. “Our biggest strength was that we had no legacy infrastructure, so we could focus purely on digital.” The brand carried multiple generations of association; the technology stack carried none. That is KTrade.
By the time of the conversation, the app had a million downloads, 260,000 registered users, and around 5,000 paying customers handling roughly $5 million of trades a day. Half of the company’s revenue comes from institutions — every major bank, asset manager, insurance company and large family office in the country. The other half comes from those 5,000 individuals. Among them, Ali Farid Khwaja notes, are his own father, his brother, his old LUMS teachers, housewives, students, professionals, singers.
A pensioner, a zero-risk product, and the dividend habit
The most concrete example in the conversation is his father. Retired, sitting on pension money, parked in a bank account that paid seven percent under the senior citizen scheme. Ali Farid Khwaja opened him an account on a zero-risk product — what he later identifies as ready-future arbitrage — that returns ten percent, sometimes fourteen percent. Active trading is explicitly not what he is recommending.
The wider point lands harder. Inflation in Pakistan runs around ten percent. A bank deposit at five or seven percent is a slow, silent loss of purchasing power. The fix is not gambling on the next breakout stock; it is owning the boring ones. Ali Farid Khwaja walks Muzamil through dividend yields on companies most Pakistanis only ever encounter as complaints. Fertiliser companies like FFC and Engro pay around fourteen percent. MCB Bank pays twelve percent. “You keep money in MCB’s bank account, you get nothing. You become a shareholder of MCB, and you get twelve percent — a share of the profit.”
He turns the complaint mode on its head. Pakistanis sit in newspapers and drawing rooms and complain that power-sector companies are coddled by the government, that a small set of industrial families make most of the money. The cleaner move, he argues, is to become a partner. “Isn’t it better to become a business partner of Mian Mansha, Hussain Dawood, Syed Babar Ali — the main industrialists of Pakistan who have been working for many years, who have domain expertise — and get a share of the profit they are making? Instead of complaining, you become their partner.” Muzamil reaches for the Indian comparison — the Tatas, the Mahindras, the Ambanis building the new India — and notes the cost of the nationalisations of the 1970s, when the same kind of industrial base in Pakistan was broken up.
The Islamic question
Muzamil raises the friction that is going to come up in his comments section before the video is published. The seven and ten percent figures will trigger the it-is-not-Islamic reflex, and Pakistani savers are, as he puts it, effectively walking into a bank, pulling money out of their pocket, and handing it back to the bank for free every month.
Ali Farid Khwaja’s answer is structural. Owning a share of a company is partnership; profit and loss are shared, which is the Islamic test. Meezan Bank maintains an index of the top thirty shariah-compliant Pakistani stocks, and across the full universe of 585 listed companies roughly two to three hundred are screened as compliant by an Islamic board led, he believes, by Mufti Taqi Usmani. Banks are excluded. Companies with too much leverage are excluded. There are two further rules for the investor: no active day trading, and no trading on borrowed money. Hold the stock for at least three days. Inside those rails, the entire instrument is religiously coherent.
Opening an account in 2021
Muzamil walks the audience through the process he himself had bounced off. The honest version: it used to take 36 pages, signed on every page, before a single rupee moved. “It’s literally my friend said yaar I will not sign any more.” That has changed. An account can now be opened entirely digitally without speaking to a broker, although Ali Farid Khwaja is the first to say the design is still not where it should be.
Mechanically: download the app, enter name and email and phone, get a call from a KTrade representative who walks you through the online form on ksb.com. Upload a CNIC, a bank statement matched to your own account, and either a salary slip or, for the self-employed, a one-line letter on a business letterhead with a business card. Housewives get a sahulat account on a simple statement that the money comes from the husband’s income. Students do the same with a letter naming their father. An OTP from NCCPL, which runs centralised KYC, verifies the phone. Within twenty-four to thirty-six hours, the account is open.
The minimum is 5,000 rupees. The trading fee is fifteen basis points — 0.15% — on each buy or sell. There is no account opening fee and no fee to deposit. Orders go directly to the exchange. There is no human in the middle taking a cut on the way in. The same routing that institutions use is the routing a 5,000-rupee buyer gets. “The system does not discriminate,” Ali Farid Khwaja says.
The friend who would not buy Systems
The single sharpest illustration in the conversation is also the most personal. A friend of Ali Farid Khwaja’s runs a software house with about a hundred employees. He told him to buy shares in Systems Limited, the listed Pakistani technology company, at around 100 rupees just before COVID. The friend did not. Today the share is at 800 rupees. The friend, he says, is now finally buying. The point is not the eight-times return. The point is that the friend was a domain expert in his competitor’s business, knew the trade was real, and still let his own complaint about other people’s wealth get in the way of his own.
Crypto is the real competition
Muzamil notes that investing has become pop culture in India — YouTubers livestreaming their trades — and that in Pakistan that energy is going almost entirely into crypto. Ali Farid Khwaja’s view is direct. His competition is not the 200 other brokerages in Pakistan; it is unregulated crypto. A Chainalysis report had recently named Pakistan the third largest crypto adoption market in the world, behind India and Vietnam, with around ten million Pakistanis invested.
His objections are specific. Capital is leaving the country in dollars and may not be able to come back; under FATF, returning funds to a Pakistani bank account is a non-trivial problem. The mentality on the buy side is, in his reading, casino mentality — not a thesis on blockchain technology but a search for a gambling hit. He compares the experience of a price climbing and falling to emotional whiplash. He is careful to separate his view of bitcoin, where he sees value, from his view of the unregulated retail flow. He compares Robinhood unfavourably on the same axis: Robinhood’s free trading is paid for by selling order flow to hedge funds that front-run the trades, so the customer is the product. Pakistan Stock Exchange routes orders directly. There is no order-flow sale in the KTrade chain.
What the $4.5 million is for
Muzamil closes on the recent funding round. KTrade had raised $4.5 million. The use of funds is split between outreach and product. Ali Farid Khwaja wants a million Pakistanis investing in stocks — the Bangladesh number. That requires marketing, education, and physical offices in twenty cities; the firm is currently in six, including Islamabad, Multan, Lahore and Karachi, and expanding. The other half of the round goes into improving the technology, including the onboarding flow that he is openly unsatisfied with.
Stock investing, he says again before Muzamil thanks him and wraps the episode at the fifty-four minute mark, “changes their lives.” That is the line he keeps returning to, and the reason a Rhodes Scholar who used to cover Apple and Samsung is sitting in a Pakistani studio explaining what a dividend is.
Full transcript
साले हाबतीर राजवाद welcome back to another episode of ThoughtBank. लेकिन राज मैं से मौजूद है गौत ही खास हिमान all the way from London. और particularly digital first stock trading and you know क्योंकि हम आज का नौजवान नहीं कर सकता you know go to like let's say पिया वह क्या है इस्लामाबाद stock exchange and then documents and it seems like a thing that my dad can do but not not me. Right? And so, someone from your team reached out and I thought कि this is the best opportunity, to figure out कि what you guys are doing. But before we get into your sort of professional k-trade and a lot of your other experiences थोड़ा सा मैं समझना यह चाहूंगा कि आपकी journey क्या रही है from your high school till till date?
Firstly thank you for inviting me and आपने कहा कि सिर्फ आज की age का लोग नहीं खोल सकते, उनको digital product चाहिए मंगले मेरे ख्याल में कोई भी नहीं खोल सकता था. So there were only two fifty thousand people who invested in stocks in Pakistan. Wow. Which is 0.1% of the population. Right. But even बांग्लादेश में एक से दो percent लोग invest करते हैं और US, UK में जहां पर मैं रहता हूं अभी 60 to 70% करती है. Stocks के अंदर? जी. तो Pakistan के अंदर कोई भी नहीं invest करते except for institutions. तो लोग bank पर पैसा डालते थे, bank invest करते हैं, लोग insurance company को पैसा देते हैं, insurance company invest करती है. तो it became a product for the rich and the large institution. Right. And you're totally right कि digital की वजह से और K-Trade app की तरह वजह से लोग अब anybody can reach out and open up an account and invest. Right. You asked about my journey. जैसे आपने बोला है I live in, मैं London में रहता हूं. I am from Islamabad. I am, I used to live in पिंडी. Right. I used to go to Saint Mary's academy में say मैंने A Surprisingly levels we've been getting a lot of Saint Mary's के graduates जो कि you know have been doing something some great work. I'm really glad to hear that. And it's a old school and you know I was very proud to be there. So Saint Mary's A level किया, lumps किया, lumps में मैंने computer science and economics में double major किया. Right. And this was what year? I graduated in 2003. Right. So I went there in 1999, completed undergrad in 2003. उसके बाद मैंने masters in economics भी वहां से किया दो हज़ार चार में. And then I got the Rhodes scholarship. Right. और फिर मैं Oxford चला गया. अच्छा. Oxford के. वहां से what did you study there? हां, वहां पर मैं business school गया. वहां पर financial economics में masters किया. Right. अच्छा, masters करने के बाद मेरे पास दो job offers थी. मैंने लोगों से advise की. लोगों ने कहा क्या Google UBS जाओ investment banking है. तो so I joined UBS in 2006.
अच्छा and UBS stands for?
United Bank of Scotland? So, ज़माने में it used to stand for Union Bank of Switzerland. मगर अब कई सालों से, मतलब आज से बीस साल से उसका नाम UBS ही है. अच्छा, it's not like a Switzerland based? It is, it's the largest bank in Switzerland. Ok. मगर उसको कहते हैं, उसका नाम अब सिर्फ़ UBS है. जिस तरह यह Habib Bank का नाम HBL है और MCB Bank का नाम सिर्फ़ MCB है, मुस्लिम commercial bank नहीं है. Right right right. It's UB company का नाम भी सिर्फ़ UBS है. तो मैं उस उसी bank में काम करता था. मगर of course I was on the investment banking side जहां पर मैं technology sector को cover करता था. Right. तो Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel यह उस जमाने में बहुत बड़ी companies होती थी. Right. Europe की सबसे बड़ी companies होती थी. तो as a technology analyst मेरा काम था कि जो दुनिया के बड़े institutional investors हैं उनको मैं advice करता था कि इन companies में आप invest करो. Right. फिर वह करने के बाद मैं एक hedge fund में चला गया जिसमें मैं खुद दुनिया भर की stock markets में emerging markets के अंदर invest करता था. तो यह market थी Russia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Pakistan, Africa, South Africa तक. Right. फिर then I again did technology research at a bank called Berenberg. उसमें मैं Apple को cover करता था, Samsung को करता था. यह कौन सा साल था? दो हज़ार नौ से start, नौ से लेकर दो हज़ार चौदह तक. Right. And I was the top ranked technology analyst in Europe. अच्छा. बिल्कुल और उसके बाद फिर I became the CFO of one of the companies I covered. Mhmm. Which was a company listed on London Stock Exchange, one of the largest payment processing company. Right. जैसे आप thigh airways पर जब अगर ticket book कराएं तो एक page आता है जिसमें आप कहते एक credit card number डालो. बिल्कुल. वह page और उसके बाद जितनी भी processing होती थी वह वह company करती थी जिसमें मैं CFO था. Right. और वह करने के बाद, मैं partner वन गया Alliance Bernstein की company Autonomous Research में. And then I I felt
that there was this massive opportunity in Pakistan क्योंकि जैसा मैंने आपको बोला कि Sir आपका portfolio देखकर आप मुझे मैं तो मैं सोच रहा आप क्या कर रहे हैं आप? Pakistan में क्यों आए हुए? So अब now I am curious कि क्या opportunity है because it has to be something really big for you to, to to entice you because clearly you have the, you have the credentials. आपका background है. I wouldn't see, would see you on a सुंदर पिचाई level ना कि आप वहीं पर होंगे और कई article पढ़ेंगे कि ये पाकिस्तानी जो है देखेंगे ये वहां पर वो कर रहे हैं. But you are actually, you know, you are coming back and you are essentially, focusing on Pakistan. So let's talk a little bit about that कि Pakistan में वाकई opportunity है investments के अंदर on a on a scale जो कि growth बहुत exponential growth दे सकती है? Absolutely.
For for me Pakistan was as a technology analyst मेरा काम था कि दुनिया भर में मैं देखूं जहां पर invest कर सकूं. जब मैं safe charge में CFO था तो हमारे पास दो सौ पचास million का cash था. मैंने acquisition किया Singapore में, Tel Aviv में, Dublin में, Germany में. Pakistan एक ऐसी market थी जहां पर दो सौ बीस million लोग थे और कोई चीज़ ही नहीं थी acquire करने की. तो मैंने कहा इससे बेहतर तो opportunity हो ही नहीं सकती. कि आप खुद जाकर create करो और आप फिर आप बेच तो इन्हीं company से जिनमें मैं काम करता था. Right. Safechurch जिसका मैं CFO था he got acquired for a billion dollars. Right. तो मुझे पता था कि sooner or later all of these companies will want to come to Pakistan कि यहां पर हम acquisition करें. Right. And I wanted to create something before, for that particular trade. तो और investment एक ऐसी जगह market थी जिसे आपने शुरू में बोला कि लोगों को पता ही नहीं था उसके बारे में. Mhmm. So it was a completely white space. Right. और आज हम जो देख रहे हैं पिछले बारह महीने में जो investment आई है जो आपने मुझसे पहले सवाल पुछा था कि यह ecosystem में हो क्या रहा है? Right. वो इसलिए हुई है कि now finally Pakistan had में आ and it was inevitable.
Why do you think it's inevitable? Because a lot of for for for an average Joe वह कह रहा है कि यार यह तो बस ऐसा ही है, ऐसा ही था चलता आया है, ऐसा ही चलता रहेगा. But ज़ाहिर है जो जो थोड़ा scientific लोग होते हैं वह it's only a matter of time before some things happen, right? Why is that? Like, what do you see in Pakistan right now जिसकी वजह से it seems like a
तो मैं उनसे कहता basically as a investor आप हमेशा वहां जाते हो जहां पर चीज़ें ख़राब हो. You want to go to to do the trade जहां पर कोई और नहीं देख रहा. Right. क्योंकि you want to be early on that trade. Right. And because उधर से ही सबसे ज़्यादा return बनते हैं. तो अगर तो let's say Pakistan में हर बंदा invest कर रहा होता तो फिर तो opportunity शायद नहीं होती करने की. Right. Opportunity इसीलिए है कि यहां पर कोई करता नहीं है. So there is a higher return for whatever you do in whichever sector. दूसरी चीज़ यह कि we are huge economy. Sixth largest country in the world, दो सौ बीस million population. So it's a large market और penetration इस वक़्त बहुत low है हर चीज़ में. Stocks में मैंने आपको बोला सिर्फ 0.1% of the population invest. तो यह 0.1 से अगर 1% भी चला जाए, जहां से 10 x increase. Yeah yeah yeah. तो दुनिया भर में जितनी भी technology companies हैं they are उनका सबसे बड़ा जो pressure है वह growth का है. Right. They are chasing growth. For growth they have to go in market जहां पर under penetration है और growth मिल सकती है. Right. That's the attractive thing about Pakistan. About Pakistan. And how long have you been with, with K Trade? जी, so we launched it in April 2018 and right now it's the number in one investment app in Pakistan. We have a million downloads. अच्छा. We have two sixty thousand registered users. Right. And we have 5,000 paying customers और इन लोगों ने हमारे साथ on a daily basis we handle around, $5,000,000 of trade on a daily basis. $5,000,000 of trade? जी. And this is purely in stocks or commodities or other things as well? This is purely in stocks. We also do commodity trading. मंगा that's not included in this number. Right. And and that's through the app as well? Stocks is all the app. Commodities, we're just starting it right now. Right. तो उसमें that's to a desktop terminal.
Right. Makes sense. आपने so this was just for people to understand. This was previously KASB. KASB का हमने सुना हुआ था. It was a bank once upon a time and then they got into securities and, ESRS. How did how did does that structure work? जी sir, it's the other way around. So KSB,
was the oldest capital market business in Pakistan. अच्छा. Set up in 1952. Right. It was a That's very early. Guess. Was a business, right? Absolutely it was a founding member of laward stock exchange, founding member of DACA stock exchange. अच्छा. And of course before partition and and till 2015 यह Pakistan में merrill Lynch का partner था. अच्छा. So internationally अगर कोई Merrill Lynch का client था तो वह Pakistan में KSB was Merrill Lynch. Right. Then they went into banking, they went into insurance, they went into asset management and then the bank had issues and it was forced merged with another bank and that business, became a part of another entity. Right. In 2018, I relaunched the business with the same brand name. Right. So it was essentially an old legacy Right. But relaunched from scratch. Right. So so that was our, हमारी सबसे बड़ी strength यह थी कि हमारे पास कोई legacy infrastructure नहीं था तो we could focus purely on digital. Right. And so k trade. Yeah yeah yeah. मगर we had the brand association and the legacy of institution which was multiple generations
multiple decades long. Because वह मसला यह होता ना कि जहां पर legacy होती है पाकिस्तानी environment के अंदर तो वहां पर there's a certain mentality as well where it's very averse to, you know, patient and and and disruption. But I believe आप लोगों का बड़ा एक sandbox environment में grow तो हुई है कि ठीक है you know just figure out how you can create completely organically something new and see how that works. Generally आपके पास जो लोग invest कर रहे हैं, what's the average age demographic?
बड़ा अच्छा सवाल है. तो हमारे half of our revenues come from institutions. Ok. तो banks, सारे Pakistan के banks, asset managers, insurance companies, बड़े बड़े family offices. तो जो भी आपके Pakistan की rich list है, उसके जितने भी बड़े बड़े family offices हैं वह half of our revenues हैं. ठीक है. Other half comes from 5,000 individuals. ठीक है. और इसमें मेरे father भी हैं, मेरे brother भी हैं, मेरे lungs के teachers भी हैं. Right. उसमें आम हर housewives भी हैं, students भी हैं, professionals हर तरह के लोग हैं. Celebrities भी हैं, singers भी हैं. So the the the सबसे अच्छी बात stock investing की है कि it helps people, it changes their lives. मैं मैं आपको अपने father की example देता हूँ. वो retire हुए, retirement के बाद उनको जो pension के पैसे मिले, उन्होंने bank में डाले हुए थे उनको, senior citizen में 7% मिलता था. Right. He opened an account with us with a zero risk product. He gets 10% return. Really? So So essentially what's the product? Like, you invest and then there is a investment banker who's basically making the trades? No, he invests himself. Stock market लोग समझते कि बड़ा risky चीज़ है. Right. Stock market एक से एक market है. Market के अंदर different products होते हैं. Right. Different companies हैं. Pakistan stock market के अंदर 585 companies listed हैं. ठीक है. इनमें हमारी सारी blue chip companies, मतलब सारे banks, सारी auto companies, सारी cement companies, Nestle. Blue chips से camera off है. Blue chip का मतलब वो बड़ी बड़ी companies जिनके product हम use करते हैं. ठीक है. मतलब जिस तरह Nestle. Right, चलनी चलनी है essentially. जी बिल्कुल stable है, जिनका business बहुत stable है. Right. तो आप यह सारी वह वाली companies भी listed है और छोटी छोटी technology companies भी listed है. तो as a investor आपके पास option होती है कि आप risky लो या less risky लो. इसके साथ साथ ETFs भी होते हैं जो कि average होती है. Right. कि आपने कहा कि मुझे तो पता नहीं मैं कौन सा stock लूं? तो एक चीज़ है ETF जिसमें
सौ stocks की average आ जाती कि आप आप एक stock खरीदते हो वह पैसा लेकर वह सौ में डाल देते हैं. So essentially you're you're banking on the market. You're not banking on a particular. वह तो some might go down, some might go up. But overall as long as the market is performing well, you're going to get the return that you बिल्कुल. That you want.
आपके वाले साहब active trading कर रहे होते हैं? नहीं नहीं नहीं, बिल्कुल नहीं. Active trading हम किसी को encourage नहीं करते. He does, तो he gets a zero risk product. Zero risk का मतलब है कि उनके पैसे कभी नीचे नहीं जा सकती उनकी investment में. वह किस तरह होते हैं? There's something called ready future arbitrage. Okay. Where technical term है, basically,
it's a zero risk product. So so I go to the app. -huh. I transfer the money to, let's say, your bank account. -huh. That's my my myriage I'm Shaniya. Welcome. Okay. We're gonna get into the process of things just in a bit. But now the the the money is showing in my app. And so I just choose that product and I say, okay. Invest this money into this particular product, and now I don't really think about anything. Absolutely. Is there is there a, a definitive return on that?
So the Or is there a zero risk with the return that is up and down? So the the return is fixed for one month. ठीक है. So which means after every month he takes some of his out. तब वह the money वह भाई निकाल लेते हैं क्योंकि उनको घर के ख़र्चे के लिए वह घर बना रहे हैं. तब घर बनाने के लिए उनको पैसा चाहिए होता है. कभी चौदह percent होते हैं. Right. मगर what he is doing is slightly more complicated. मगर जैसा आपने बोला the easiest thing is you open the app, उसमें पूरे के पूरे छह सौ products आ जाते हैं, सारी companies आ जाती हैं. Right. आपको जो company अच्छी लगती है, आप उसका button दबाते हो. आप कहते हो कि मैंने इसके share खरीदनी है और आपके पैसे उस company के shares में चले जाते हैं और उसके बाद आप अपने app में अपना portfolio को track कर सकते हो कि आज मेरे investment की value कितनी है. Right. आपने भी थोड़ी देर पहले बोला active trading आप किसी को recommend नहीं करते. In Pakistan में generally, know, we have this idea कि हम पता नहीं पैसे लगाएंगे और लगाने के बाद फिर,
you know, we're going to, how to put it? You know, we're going to active. क्योंकि मैं कहता we don't have that mentality where we're like यार जो पैसा साढ़ा है ना inflation के अंदर उस पैसे को कहीं पर दबा दो और long term पर आपको return मिलेगा. What's your opinion on that कि overall how what's for an average जो और मैं आपको इस तरह से context देता हूं. मुझे जो interest इसमें आया और मुझे realization हुई कि हमारी society में किस तरीके से ग़लत काम हो रहा है, in terms of investments and in terms of the money flow, right? वह इस तरह से हुआ कि मैंने एक दफ़ाई एक Instagram के ऊपर अपनी, एक story की थी. जिस story के अंदर मैंने डाला. पहले मैंने यह डाला कि जी, लोगों से मैंने पुछा कि are you, you know, are you interested in investing? Almost 93% people said yes. मैंने बोला अच्छा, do you have enough information available online to invest in Pakistan? Almost a 100% people said no. पहले तो मुझे यह चीज़ समझ आई opportunity और requirement की कि भाई there is not enough content available जहां पर लोगों को सारे तरीक़े से बताया जाए कि भाई अगर आपका पैसा जाए ना. हमारी तो investment की जो वह है वह सारी फिर मैंने एक सवाल पुछा. मैंने कहा कि do you have savings? And people said yes and overwhelming amount of people said yes. I said, I broke it down and I said, okay, give me, a breakdown of how many savings do you have? एक मैंने रखा कि up to, 1 lakh to five lakh. और एक मैंने रखा five lakh and above. ठीक है? You would be surprised कि जब वह जो number आया ना तो मैंने क्या किया मैंने floor उठाया. तो मैंने कहा कि let's say कि मेरी Instagram follower में, ठीक है? अच्छा, तो पहले तो मुझे यह समझ आई. मैंने कहा यार इतना पैसा है साढ़ा इस time के ऊपर और यह भी number अगर मैं इसको actual जाऊं तो god alone knows कि जिसने पांच लाख का above बोला वह एक करोड़ बोला तो वह करोड़ बोला क्या बोला है? फिर मैंने and I am just one influencer और one content creator out there जिसके पास एक certain number में हो सकता है मैं खाला एक लाख दस हज़ार Entrepreneurial spirit होनी चाहिए, वह सारा कुछ होना चाहिए. और और जो almost समझ लें कि 5% ने कहा stocks 15%, 20% नहीं कितना समझता है? जो बकिया था ना 35% वह सारा real estate real estate fileओं में पैसा दबाती जाओ. Non productive market के अंदर जो है ना वह करी जाओ. And so so I realized कि लोगों को concept ही नहीं है and correct me if I am wrong. I am sorry मैं बड़ा time देना हूं because मैं context देना चाह रहा था आपको. My understanding of stocks is कि यार अगर मेरे पास पैसा पड़ा हुआ है बचाए इसके क्योंकि मैं एक risky, मतलब मैं stock में नहीं करूंगा कि वो risky business है लेकिन मैं अपना business खोलूंगा. हालांकि मेरा zero experience है business के अंदर और उस industry के अंदर. I feel like that is a much much much much higher risk than actually going and researching and just parking your money somewhere. Stocks inherently the idea of stocks is कि एक इंसान business कर रहा है वह successful है अपने business के अंदर. आप उसके business के अंदर invest करो ताकि वह scale करे और वह scale करके उसी को multiply करे जो इस चीज़ की उसको learning भी है जिस चीज़ के उसके पास talent भी है जिस की सारा कुछ है बजाय इसके क्या आप अपनी डेढ़ inch की मस्जिद बनाओ. Is that correct? Absolutely absolutely. Right? So in a country like Pakistan, जब जहां पर हमारे बड़े सारे मसाले हमें solve करने और हमें बहुत सारी growth की तरफ़ जाना है, तो would it be not would it not be better कि we invest with people who have understood the solution to the problems rather than, you know, try to figure out our own set of problems. बिल्कुल, आपने बहुत ज़्यादा बड़ी important बातें की और उसमें
बड़ी deep बातें थी और सारे के सारे points बड़े valid थे. मैं उसमें दो points से pick up करना चाहता हूं. एक तो जिसका आपने कहा कि, inflation बड़ी यहां पर ज़्यादा है. तो हमारे it's very important for us कि जो हमारी savings है उसमें हमें अच्छा return मिले. Right. क्योंकि अगर अगर आपको return नहीं मिल रहा तो inflation दस percent है, bank में आपको पांच percent मिल रहा है. Right. या सात percent मिल रहा है अगर आपको कोई favor कर रहा है कि अगर आप pensioner है या फिर आप senior citizen है. So you need to beat that number वरना आपकी purchasing power कम होती जा रही है. दूसरी चीज़ जैसे आपने बोला कि role models नहीं है लोगों के पास. जबकि उनको information इन सारी चीज़ों के बारे में है. मैं आपको example देता हूं कि Pakistan में हम हम complain करते रहते हैं कि देखिए यह power sector की companies हैं इनको government ने इतना ज़्यादा return दिया हुआ है, यह इतना ज़्यादा पैसा बनाते हैं. हमारे अखबार में, हमारे दिन की conversation में यह बातें कई दफा आती हैं. Stock market में आप invest इनकी companies में invest करके इनके आप partner वन सकते हैं और जो यह profit बना रहे हैं उसका एक हिस्सा आपको मिल जाएगा. Right. So isn't it better to become a business partner of मिया मंशाह, हुसैन दाऊद, सैयद बाबर अली, the the दाऊदs. So you know the the the the main industrialist of Pakistan who have been working for many years, who have domain expertise. Yeah. और जो वह पैसा बना रहे उसका आपको हिस्सा मिल रहा है. Right. तो instead of complaining कि यार यह इतना क्यों पैसा बना रहे हैं, आप उनके साथ उनके partner वन जाते हो. हां. So stock investing is actually extremely extremely powerful tool because it aligns you with
the guys who Some of more successful people there, and we saw that in India as well where the Tata's and the Midland and the Ambanis are essentially building the new India. And so we unfortunately had the misfortune जब हमने वह sort of nationalize किया था. And I believe twelve twenty two families, जो के शायद उस time में वह मुझे याद है I was reading the story of Pico, I believe. बिल्कुल. P e c o. जी, industrial company. And and and just the things that they were doing at the time was mind numbing, right? Like we were looking at right now we're looking at you know bringing he and I in and we're bringing Samsung in. अब कल देख रहा था उनका वह हो गया कि वह अब TVs भी यहां पर assemble करेंगे. And that was the time जब हम jet engines के लिए चीज़ें बनाकर South Korea भेज रहे थे और वह भेज रहे थे and these guys did not have the capability to do a lot a lot of that. And and so again the same mentality that you mentioned कि where we want to constantly say कि हम तो नहीं बना रहे but वो क्यों बना रहे हैं? उसकी वजह से हमने उसको break करते करते हमने essentially अपनी industry तबाह कर दी. इस case में you know we essentially tie down tie on the backs of people who actually have the vision for that growth. But so थोड़ा सा आपने इसमें दिम्यान एक बात बोली आपने 7%, 8% मुझे पता है इसके ऊपर दिम्यान में एक certain amount but एक definite amount वह आकर बोलेगी कि sir यह जो percentage वाली game है ना यह तो आ रहा है इस्लामिक है. Mhmm mhmm. Right. So so I know for a fact कि Pakistan में one of the reasons why I I actively tell people कि listen go invest in stocks is because आपने कहा ना कि यार bank में आप रखोगे आपको 5% मिलेगा. Bank में Pakistan में masses में कोई कोई ले नहीं रहा. कोई savings account भी नहीं रख रहा Right? वो they're saying this is an Islamic and so so they're losing. They're every month they are losing money. It's like कोई bank के account में आ रहा और पैसे लेकर अपनी जेब में डालकर जा रहा और आपको कोई परवाही नहीं है इस बात की. In terms of stocks and commodities and a lot of these things and and based on, I don't know if you do but based on your personal experience or or or research, What's the Islamic investment, you know,
concept in all of this? So generally, stocks or investing in companies is partnership, and it's Islamic. Right. In in essence. Practicality may be, मिज़ान bank जो इस्लामic bank है they have they have made an index. उस index के अंदर 30 companies हैं जो कि Pakistan के top 30 companies हैं जो शरिया compliant है. I think overall जो मैंने बोला कि 585 companies stock exchange में listed है, उसमें से around two to 300 जो हैं वह शरिया compliant है. Right. उसमें वह SS इस तरह करते हैं कि banks को निकाल देते हैं. ठीक है. और company का leverage देखते हैं कि company ने loan कितना लिया हुआ है. Right. अगर loan बहुत ज़्यादा लिया हुआ है तो उसको वो शरिया compliant से list से निकाल देते हैं. मगर almost तीन सौ companies हैं जिसको मिज़ान के इस्लामic board ने जिसमें मेरे ख्याल में it's led by मुफ्ती तकिउस्मानी. Right. They have said कि दीदा शरिया compliant. उसके और भी दो rules हैं. एक कि आप active day trading नहीं कर सकते.
Right. It's a, it's a emotional mistake which people do. It's it's like Vegas, right? Essentially, you you have the facade of making money but the house will always win. Absolutely
absolutely. So and that's the whole problem in Pakistan के Pakistan में जो traditional brokers थे वह लोगों को encourage करते थे, उस तरह trading करने के लिए क्योंकि as you said I'll quote you that household will always win. So उनको उस तरह फ़ायदा होता था. Right. हमने कहा कि यह हम encourage नहीं करेंगे क्योंकि हमारा mission लोगों को trade करवाना नहीं है. हमारा mission ज़्यादा से ज़्यादा लोगों को invest करवाना है. Right. ताकि market grow हो, Pakistan में productive assets की तरफ पैसा आए, लोगों की well-being improve हो. Right. क्योंकि जब वह होगी तो एक automatically it will start producing a positive virtuous circle. So come going back to Islamic वह के दो चीज़ें एक तो पूरी list available है कौन से stocks श्रेया compliant है दूसरा you have to hold them for at least three days if not more and the third thing is कि आप loan लेकर trading नहीं कर सकते. Right. तो it is शरिया compliant as well. Wow, pretty cool. So that's a there there there is that option कि discuss करके अगर question mark यह है तो they can go figure it out and and that that exists. अच्छा, interesting. So I'm gonna come towards k trade for a bit.
Run me through a through through the process because I've had this conversation with someone who's who runs this very, very good website called samaya.pk, I believe. And so he has all of these, like, all of the data listed down in a very sort of good UI. Mhmm. और उनका यही है कि अभी तक उनकी so I got excited but I was never able to hop on to the, you know, the the actual stock market because मुझे वह एक एक constant मैं बड़ा honestly आपको बताता हूं. एक mental barrier है. Right? So मेरे पास अगर मैं कहता हूं कि यार Similarly, stock market का, you know, it seems like कि क्या scene है? I've I've met an investment, or or a brokerage firm. The things that they were mentioning, it was too many complicated conversations and So I'm gonna put the question right there in front of you. But before I do that, just to mention this is not a sponsored video. There is we're not taking any money from K Trade. I just thought that it's this is a very interesting product. We've talked about this before as well. And so, I think this will be very useful for the audience. But मैंने मैं कहता हूं जी मेरे पास दस साल रुपए. ठीक है. मैंने जाना और जाकर मैंने कहीं पर invest करना है और कहीं पर invest करके मैंने, you know,
and investing is a responsible act. आपने बिल्कुल सही कहा कि account opening was extremely cumbersome. Right. और शायद यह सारा बोला कि शायद हो सकता है कि deliberately ही लोगों ने मुश्किल बनाया हो ताकि वह खुद आपके पैसे manage कर लें. वह यह आपके पास power देने के बजाय वह कहें कि हम हमें आप delegate करते हैं यह power. Right. तो सिर्फ़ lawyers के लिए भी यह bankers और brokers के लिए भी valid था. Right. और मैं यह भी नहीं कहूंगा कि अब K trade ने या हमने या किसी और ने उस problem को पूरा तरीके से solve कर दिया है. We are still a startup. It's a work in progress. It's a work in progress. And I think there's a lot of interesting things happening from the SECP side as well जहां पर वह digitalization hours की तरफ. Massively. पिछले you know twenty four months में HCCP ने जो reforms लाए और जो changes की है और Pakistan stock से changes की है. They are amazing like पिछले बीस सालों में ऐसा काम नहीं हुआ था जो पिछले दो सालों में हुए हैं. Right. और digital onboarding is one of those things.
मतलब वह क्या? हां,
तो वह KYC के regulated business था. Right. हमारी वह नहीं थी. यह regulator ने ही setup किया हुआ था. Right. और over time regulator ने हर तरह के risk form आ था. आपने पांच हज़ार डाल लें, आपने पांच लाख डाल लें, आपने छत्तीस हज़ार sign लिया. आप effectively आपने 36 pages पर, क्योंकि 36 pages की booklet, हर booklet, हर page पर signature चाहिए आपको. तो सारी बात है. It's literally my friend said कि यार अब मैं sign नहीं करूंगा आगे और. तो that has changed now. Now you can open an account completely digitally without talking to any broker.
अच्छा. मतलब you can open an account with KTrade without talking to any of my colleagues. Ok, so so the process. मगर it's still not easy but That's fine, that's fine. But just to understand the process, right? So I'm going on my App Store. I'm downloading KTrade, which is an app that's available there. I
have downloaded that now what? So, the onboarding is not on if you download the app, my colleagues will call you, and they'll say, hey, you've downloaded the app. We can help you do full KYC to open your account. So app के अंदर मैं आपकी credentials डाल सकता हूं और मुझे call आ जाएगी. Exactly. आप अपना नाम और email address और telephone डालेंगे app के अंदर और आपको call आ जाएगी. जब call आएगी तो आपको वह guide करेंगे to fill the online form. ठीक है. तो आप KSB dot com में ख़ुद भी directly जा सकते हैं उसमें form बड़ा हुआ है. Form के अंदर आपने अपना नाम डालना है. Mhmm. आपने अपनी email address डालनी है. Mother's maiden name which is a regulatory KYC requirement. ID card की copy ठीक है. Upload करनी है और ID card का शायद number भी कहीं जगह डालना होगा और जिस से आप bank account में करते हैं आपने एक पुरानी bank account statement up upload करनी है. ठीक है. और अगर आप अगर job कर रहे हैं तो अपनी salary slip upload. Let's assume मेरा अपना business है. तो आप अपने business की आप एक statement में लिख देंगे कि मेरा अपना business है, यह मेरे business, अपना business card attach करना है और अपने letterhead पर डाल देना कि यह मेरे business से पैसा आए हैं और आप इन चीज़ों को upload करेंगे. आपके phone पर एक OTP generate होकर आएगा कि यह, यह आपका number है क्योंकि आपके ID card को verify करेगी. एक है NCCPL जो कि, centralized KYC करता है. Right. और वह आपने उसको reply करना होगा कि yes, यह मेरा ही OTP है और उसके बाद within,
twenty four to thirty six hours आपका account खुल जाएगा. ठीक है, so अभी तक ऐसा मुझे जो समझ आया है, जो problem आ रही है वह bank statement क्या रही है जैसे मुझे actually
और housewives के लिए सहूलत account बना हुए हैं जो PSX ने बनाया हुआ है Pakistan stock exchange ने. All they have to do is write that we are housewife and ये जो हमारा पैसा है ये हमारे husband की income से आया है. ठीक है. Basically. So there is a, there is a solution for that? There is solution. It's it's actually a very simple thing. आपने तो शायद you have done one fifty five shows so आपको इसके बाद का एहसास होगा कि basically design thinking जो है ना वह उस product में नहीं आई. क्योंकि वह government regulators ने ही अभी product बनाया है तो वह design को improve नहीं किया मगर वैसे all you need is those three documents, NIC, bank account statement, pay slip. अगर pay slip नहीं है आपको सिर्फ़ एक letter चाहिए कि, मेरे पैसे कहां से आई है? Right. अगर आप filer है तो आप सिर्फ़ अपना tax file का वह दे दें. Right. That's it. Right. And your account will be open. So it's actually very very simple. So if you're an, if you're a filer, do you still have to give the pay slip? No. Then you just need to submit your tax file application. तो आप cash नहीं दे सकते. Right. आपने bank account से ही transfer करेंगे तो हमने यह देखना होता है कि यह पैसा क्या आज आप ही से आया है? तो इसलिए bank account statement देनी होती है कि हम कैसे हम match कर सके कि जिसने account खोला है पैसा भी उसका है. Do you think रास्त will change that? रास्त will make it easier but even right now it's very easy because all you have to go is go on your bank account and transfer money. We are connected even with one link so it it is easy. Main चीज़ जो इसमें है वह KYC AML requirement है. Right. जो FATF की वजह से आई है. Right. कि we need to know, we as an regulator and us, we need to know Where the money is coming from? Where the money is coming from. That's it. Right.
Okay. So now I have the I have the bank account. Sorry, I have the account that has been opened. अच्छा, sorry. Housewives हो गया students का क्या बनेगा? बिल्कुल. Same ही वह आपस में ऐसी जगह कहेंगे जी मैं student हूं. कि मैं student हूं और यह मेरे father के पैसे हैं. और letter जो बनाना है वह क्या आपने बस एक word document में letter करके print निकालकर sign करना उसको? बिल्कुल.
आपके viewers को वह नज़र आएगा कि नहीं मगर it's very very simple. It's it's an app उसमें आपकी जो investment है वह actually खुली हुई है. So यह so you can see all the companies which are listed. If you don't mind me.
So, यहां पर So, essentially, इसमें आपके वहां यह जो listed है, I can click on one of these and I can move Yes. So, for example, is TV.
Okay. So NL is networks. You can go to view stock and इसमें आपको उसकी share price chart आ जाएगी कि how's the stock doing. You click on buy, you enter the amount you want to buy, and you then press Okay. Fairly simple. Fairly like how it's almost like in anywhere else in the world. Absolutely. Then you can go to your portfolio, and you see how much money you have. This is my sister's account, which I've opened. And so she has some three stocks, and, you know, it's showing how much she has invested. Just to understand this,
what's the turnaround time of you doing this to actually the trade happening? Immediately. This is this is the trade. There is no actual पीछे कोई बंदा नहीं बैठाएगा. अच्छा जी वहां पर आ गया, अच्छा जी अब मैं इनके लिए trade manage करता हूं. It's
लोगों को यह भी नहीं पता होता कि on a daily basis जो हर it trades around $100,000,000 per day. उन $100,000,000 में से दस से पंद्रह percent यानी पंद्रह million dollar का daily volume global institutions से आता है जैसा Blackrock, Templeton, Fidelity, Ashmore, Aberdeen. तो तो लोग ऐसे घबराते हैं जैसे यह पता नहीं कोई छोटी सी institution है, एक हो casino है जहां से लोग पैसे लेकर भाग जाएंगे. I think पाकिस्तानी people and पाकिस्तानी economy पाकिस्तानी companies are losing out. मैं आपको एक छोटी सी example देता हूं. It goes back to आपका जो पुराना point था कि अपना business करने से बेहतर है कि आप all all follow कर सके. मेरा एक दोस्त है उसकी software company है and decent software company सौ लोग काम करते हैं. Right. मैंने उसको कहा कि यार Pakistan के top company है systems. Right. मैंने कहा आप systems के share में invest करो और उस वक्त था वह 100 rupees का चल रहा था 80 से भरकर 100 rupees पर आने यह कब की बात है? अठारह महीने पर आने की बात है. ऐ pre COVID? Right after COVID. Right after COVID. Actually this was pre COVID, this was pre COVID. Today the share price is at 800 rupees. Yeah yeah yeah. So how did he invest? Now he is investing. अब वह कह रहे क्या? मैं करके भूल जाता हूं. मगर that's a point कि उसके business को वहां पर competitor में invest करके उसके benefit से भी फ़ायदा उठा सकता था. हां हां हां हां. अगर मैं उसी पैसे से उसी गाड़ी का stock ले लेता तो वह आज उस उस पैसे से मैं आज जो है ना पांच छह गाड़ियां और हरी सकता था. Right. So that's the whole power of investment investing. And so just to understand,
the only way to make money is is by the share price increasing or are there other, you know, mechanisms? क्योंकि if I understand this correctly, जब company का profit show होता है तो वह is that divided, you know, to to the shareholder.
What's what are all the avenues? हो रहा क्या होता है पीछे? Thank you for asking this question. You are totally right कि आप एक company के हिस्सेदार बनते हो, shareholder बनते हो. तो जो company का मुनाफा है profit साल का, उसका कुछ हिस्सा वो अपने shareholders में divide कर देती है. उसको dividend कहती हैं. और dividend जो आपके proportional share holding है उस लिहाज से आपको मिल जाता है. तो, let's say कि मैंने सय्यद बाबराली की company है packages उसमें invest किया Really? जी अगर आप जैसा Because they're hugely undervalued essentially. They're hugely undervalued. Pakistan market is hugely undervalued. So, ऊपर जाएं ना जाएं उसी जगह पर रहे. आपको बारह percent, तेरह percent, चौदह percent सिर्फ़ profit का हिस्सा आपको घर में मिल जाता है और यह पैसा आपके bank account में direct चला जाता है. आपने कुछ नहीं करना. हां. So again मैं उस बात पर emphasize करता हूं कि privileged class को यह बात पता है. हां. Privileged class जो है जो Pakistan के elite लोग हैं वह अपनी saving का बड़ा हिस्सा ऐसी companies में invest करती है और उनको एक recurring income साल की उनके घर में आती रहती है. मगर आम आदमी को इस बात का नहीं पता. So for example there are certain fertilizer companies FFC, Angrow, जिनमें चौदह percent dividend yield है. MCB bank बारह percent. आप MCB में bank account में पैसे रखो आपको कोई return नहीं मिलता. आप MCB का shareholder वन जाओ तो आपको बारह percent return आपको मिलेगा उसके profit का हिस्सा मिलेगा. Right. जो कि इस्लामिक है क्योंकि चलिए वह तो bank है मगर profit का हिस्सा इस्लामिक है. हां, essentially. Because profit loss दोनों में आप हिस्सा लग रहे हैं, right?
आप लोग recently भी you know, you got the got a seat running of $4,500,000. Where is that going essentially? Is it going into growth? Is it going to product development?
What's the thought behind that? जी, both of these things because both of these things are important. एक तो सबसे बड़ा जो हमारा mission है कि we want 1,000,000 people to invest in stocks. Right. क्योंकि हम कमा कम बांग्लादेश के level तक पहुंचे. तो उसके लिए it's outreach, reaching out to people, marketing, telling them about कि क्यों invest करना चाहिए, किस तरह invest करना चाहिए. Right. So we are opening up offices in 20 cities. अभी हमारे छह cities में हैं इस्लामाबाद, पिशावर, मुल्तान. पिशावर में नहीं है sorry इस्लामाबाद मुल्तान, लाहौर, कराची. तो और शहरों में खोल रही हैं. And दूसरा technology, improving this product, improving online onboarding जिस तरह हमने बोला कि इस वक़्त अभी भी process इतना अच्छा नहीं है और बेहतर हो सकते हैं. Right. तो उसको improve करना. Right. So all of these activities.
Very very cool. थोड़ा सा मुझे यह बताइएगा कि हमारे यहां एक mentality है particularly in the in the investment managers, in the bankers particularly और इसकी मैं context दूंगा आपको hash call की जो दिवाक़ा हुआ था. Where जब बात आती है investment की या बात आती है loans की या बात आती है कि किस तरह से हमने खेला था हमने एक economy within an economy बनाई भी. We have like a 3% economy then we have a 1% economy and 97% जो दूसरे लोग हैं ना non non imported economy जो है वह तो खाते हमें ही नहीं आती. Primarily हमारी conversation इसके around ग़ज़रती है कि Pakistan में हमारी गाड़ी की किस size की मैं देख रहा था उसमें जो number of people who have who own a car is is less than 2% in Pakistan. So our entire conversation around around cars does not really impact the 98%. Similarly हमारी जो imported goods की conversation है. Yes, sure imported में oil हो गया, energy हो गई. वह mass को impact करती है but mostly mass जो है वह आटा चावल चीनी के ऊपर गुज़ारा करके, you know, आकर जा रही है. इस इस context में जब bankers भी होते हैं for example so they're when they're looking to give a loan वह कहते हैं कि यार क्या क्या ख़ब करनी है? छोटे छोटे loan क्या SME, SME, SME. सत्तर fees of economy SME ही है लेकिन वह कहते कि SME को lift नहीं करानी. हमने primarily target करना है towards these big players ताकि हम एक contract करें, एक जगह sign करवाएं और उसके ऊपर bonus भी अच्छा निकालें और काम भी आसान हो जाए. और उसका होता नुक़सान क्या है कि पचास पचपन अरब रुपया आपका जो है वह default कर जाता है जिस पचास पचपन अरब के ऊपर mind numbing है कि कितनी SMEs कहां से कहां पहुंच चुकी होती है. Similarly investment की बात होती है तो जाहिर है वह KYC अच्छा KYC का जो problem है वह क्या है कि because it's so complicated कि even the person who is handling all of that is just like कि यार करोड़ों रुपया लगाओ तो बात करूंगा. You know यह क्या बात है कि तुमने दो लाख रुपया Essentially I am doubling my right. Where do you guys stand? Because what I have seen right now is particularly in the investment side जो fintech में और जो retail side का ऊपर अभी recently हमें wave नज़र आई है with बाज़ार, with दस्तगीर, with know A lift
बिल्कुल सही कह रहे आप. Right. So so how do you see? What are your thoughts about this entire situation? तो हमारा पूरा आपने जो explain किया है वह that's the that's the reason why we exist. Right. हमारा mission वही है और opportunity भी वही है. आपने बिल्कुल सही कहा कि so Pakistan में दो सौ brokers हैं. बहुत ज़्यादा number है. मगर वह ज़्यादातर या तो खुद invest करते थे या सिर्फ़ institutions को या जो अमीर लोग हैं उनको service देते थे. वही हमने बताया कि दो two fifty thousand लोगों को service मिलती थी. मतलब आपके followers almost इतने होंगे जितने total Pakistan में लोग invest करते थे. Right. So so हमारा mission यह था कि हमने उनको लेना target करना. तो हम इन से हम इन दो सौ brokers से हम compete नहीं करते. Right. हमारा मक़सद है जो 99.9% नहीं invest करते, उनको बताना और starting with your own father, with your own family. Right. जब आप उनको समझा लेंगे तो फिर आप सब किसी को भी समझा देंगे. तो so that's exactly what we are doing which is a more difficult thing to do. Right. Because then you have to create the whole market by telling, you know, educate them. तो हमारा ज़्यादातर काम is about education और आपने यह बिल्कुल बोला, अच्छी सही बात बोली कि my competition is crypto. Right. And and not regulated crypto, unregulated crypto. Yeah. और इसमें मुझे बहुत डर लगता है कि मुझे लगता है कि लोगों के पैसे उसमें क्योंकि regulated नहीं है इसलिए पैसे उनके loose. अच्छा लोगों के और और Pakistan के भी. Pakistan के भी. Because पैसा सारा dollar में जा रहा और dollar से बाहर flow कर रहा है essentially. जी और मुझे समझ नहीं आती कि why do we have and by we you mean the government and the regulatory bodies. How how are they ignoring this? Yeah. मतलब दस अभी chain analysis की report आई है America से जो publish हुई है कि दस million पाकिस्तानी crypto में invest करते हैं. Pakistan is a third, तीसरी market है दुनिया भर में जिसमें सबसे ज़्यादा adoption हुआ है crypto का. India है, फिर Vietnam है, फिर Pakistan है. तो इतना कुछ हो गया और किसी को पता ही नहीं है और सारा खुंडी से हवाले से हो हवाले से हो रहा like that's the problem. मुझे पता कभी comment section में यह बात आएगी कि crypto हो रहा है तो हम advancement कर रहे हैं.
Blockchain नहीं use हो रही कहीं पर. Right? आपने कोई underlying technology नहीं बेहतर कर दी. आपने कोई real estate को आप blockchain भी नहीं ले आए. वह सारी चीज़ें नहीं कर ली. आप एक एक एक product के ऊपर आप सिर्फ़ और सिर्फ़ पैसे को move कर रहे हो और उस movement के ऊपर पैसे बना रहे हो. सही है या ग़लत है? I'm not gonna comment on that. But अगर मैं macroeconomics में देखूं that money essentially is leaving Pakistan a. B अगर वह आपका crypto rise करती है और आप कहते कि मैं पैसा वापस Pakistan ही बिला रहा हूं. It is I mean with the FATF breathing down our like neck हमारी हर चीज़ें KYC एक तरफ और crypto के ऊपर पैसा उधर घूम के उधर गया उधर गया कोई मसला ही कोई नहीं है. तो तो मैं crypto I am not against crypto. मैं I I
see value in bitcoin. I am against unregulated crypto. Right. क्योंकि इसी वजह से जो आपने बोला कि एक तो Pakistan से capital flight हो रही है. Right. दूसरा जब इन लोगों के पैसे बनेंगे यह पैसे Pakistan वापस नहीं ला सकेंगे. Right. क्योंकि FATF के आप अपने bank में तो नहीं पैसे जाकर डाल सकोगे. हां. Bank में नहीं डालोगे गाड़ी निकाल नहीं सकेंगे. तो basically आपके पैसे डूब, सारे पैसे डूब जाएंगे. Right. और मैं इस चीज़ से बहुत परेशान हूं. Right. और इस चीज़ से भी परेशान हूं कि उसमें लोग की mentality यही होती है कि it's casino mentality. Right. वह कोई इसलिए नहीं invest कर रहे कि they believe in blockchain technology. Yeah. मतलब मुझे तो लगता था Pakistan में सारे Shiba Inu भरी द रही हैं. So they, you know, they have they are just doing it for gambling because of, you know, वह
एक एक psychology की basic एक वह है कि gambling आपको मज़ा आता है. आपको तो वह hit मिलता है, oh my god ऊपर जा रही है और फिर वह emotionally आप बेचना शुक्र देते हो, my god नीचे जा रही है. Yes.
Right, makes sense. Robin Hood देखे आपने globally? Yes sir. How do you compare yourself to Robin Hood? दो दो चीज़ें मुख्तलिफ हैं. एक robin hood जो है वो institutions को नहीं देखता. दूसरा robin hood में एक मसला है. वो मसला ये है कि वो they sell your flows और अगर आपने देखा हो पिछले दिनों वो हम पे regulatory action भी उनके ऊपर हुआ है, बड़ा शोर मचा कि वह करते हैं यह कि जो customers का data है वह आगे बड़े hedge funds को बेच देते हैं और hedge funds उसे फ़ायदा उठाते हैं. So their product is not जो वह जो free trading चल रही है इस time के ऊपर वह essentially data के ऊपर वह पैसे बना रहे हैं. हां. If you are not paying anything you are the product, right? You are the product और उसमें basically यह हो रहा है कि customers को गलत prices मिल रही है. Right. क्योंकि the institutions are front running them. वह अगर वह पांच, dollar का लेते हैं तो असल में institution उनको तीन dollar खरीद के उनको पांच dollar का बेच देते हैं. अच्छा अच्छा अच्छा. Pakistan stock exchange में जिस समय मैंने आपको app में दिखाया था जब आप order दे रहे हो तो आप directly आपका order exchange में execute हो रहा है दिम्यान में कोई बंदा नहीं है. ठीक है. और यह जो platform K Trade के app के अंदर है जो हमारे institutions use करते हैं, वह भी यह चीज़ use कर रही है. अच्छा. It's the same order. Whether आप पांच हज़ार रुपए, you can open an account with KTrade with पांच हज़ार from 5,000 rupees. Okay. Whether you, अगर आप बेशक आप पांच हज़ार से करें या आप पांच लाख या पांच करोड़ से करें, the system does not discriminate. Right. There is no differentiation. Right. So यह यह हमारी ख़ुबी नहीं है. I won't take credit for it. यह Pakistan stock exchange की ख़ूबी है. Right. So that's the difference with Robinhood. Right.
In terms of, you know, the the the the experience, of of Robinhood and and how your app is going, how would you how would you identify that? The reason I'm asking is because a lot of young people in Pakistan I know are seeing Robin Hood and are seeing the whole GameStop situation and and so pop culture का वह हिस्सा वन पाया गया है. मुझे लगता है हमारे यहां investment एक pop culture का हिस्सा नहीं वन पाई. India में होना शुरू हो गया so I was looking at lot of youtubers जो कि बताते रहते हैं अपनी daily का stream करते बैठकर देखो जी मैं trading कर रहा हूं या जो traders हैं वह streaming करना शुरू हो गया and so it's become a cool thing. Why is it that crypto has 10,000,000? It's it's literally they were cars का effect, right? And and and the credit is there, you know? उसने उस चीज़ को इतना ज़्यादा popular कर दिया कि everybody wants a piece of the pie. Pakistan maybe haven't been able to do that because, like like you said, design thinking, everything is just built for these, uncles essentially. Right? How do you see the design language and the design sense of of what you've created and what you hope to create in the coming, you know, in the future,
particularly when it comes to targeting the Gen Z and the millennials? तो आपने बहुत important बात की है. इसमें तीन points आते हैं. एक तो आपने बिल्कुल सही कहा कि crypto को पक्षा ना मशहूर करने में विकार धका का बहुत important हाथ है. तो essentially stock market needs somebody like him. Right. Not him but somebody like him who can who who can evangelize and tell people We about are trying to do that. We are trying to bring people like that to this. हमने जो पैसा raise किया जो मैंने वह कह रहा था कि outreach करनी है that's exactly about this. मगर we also have to be responsible about it because it's it's not a game. We don't want to gamify this. Right. We want people to जैसे आपने बोला था खेले मैं खेले नहीं वह इसको responsibly ले. So so it's slightly there's slight complication with it. मगर तीसरी चीज़ जैसा आपने बिल्कुल सही बोला कि the product needs to be simple as well ताकि लोग उसको आसानी से कर सके. हमारा mission यही है. हमने capital raise उसकी वजह से किया, हमारा अगला round भी उसकी वजह से ही होगा and it's a long term mission. Right. It's not something which you can do very quickly. What's the cost of trade on the app? It's very low. So there's no cost of opening the account, there's no cost of putting money in. When you buy or sell a stock, the fees is 15 basis points, which is 0.15% जिसका मतलब है कि अगर आप,
अगर आप हज़ार रुपए के दस stocks ख़रीदते दस रुपए का एक stock, सौ रुपए का एक stock है. हां, तो अगर आप हज़ार रुपए के stock ख़रीदते हैं तो ठीक हो गया. अली भाई ok. So we are at the fifty four minute mark. Thank you so much for this extremely insightful session and for taking the time out. Know you are extremely busy. I know that आपने already एक meeting delay की थी. But thank you so much. You know, you are, you on a mission. That's, that's very powerful. And I hope कि Pakistan को जो youth का you know bulge है, जो हमारी growth की तरफ नज़र आ रहा है, उसके अंदर हमारी mentality of investment की तरफ जाए. Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for inviting me and thank you for supporting this mission and thank you for doing all the stuff which you're doing.
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