As a place to park savings, Raqami is already the rate leader: 10.00% to 11.00% tiered on savings and up to 11.50% on one-year term deposits per its June 2026 sheet. As a primary bank, it is not ready: no financing products, no published profit-sharing ratios, and a commercial licence only granted in May 2026. Keep your main relationship at a full-service bank like Meezan and let Raqami compete for your surplus cash.
Raqami Islamic Digital Bank is Pakistan's first Shariah-compliant digital retail bank, licensed by the State Bank on May 20, 2026, sponsored by Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company and Kuwait's EnerTech. It has no branches; cash comes in and out through 700-plus Askari Bank branches and 800-plus ATMs free of charge. The incumbents it challenges have two decades of product shelves and published pool mechanics. Here is where the challenger genuinely wins, and where it has not earned trust yet.
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Rates: the challenger pays for your attention
Raqami's June 2026 published rates: Mudaraba savings at 10.00% up to Rs 500,000, 10.50% to Rs 1 million, 11.00% above, and term deposits from 7 days to 1 year paying 10.00% to 11.50%. Against the incumbents' June and July 2026 declarations (Meezan savings 7.04%, HBL Islamic 7.23%, BankIslami 7.8355%, Bank Alfalah's digital TDR up to 8.97%), Raqami out-pays the field by two to four percentage points on comparable products.
Know what that premium is. Raqami launched in December 2025 paying a flat 7.30% to 7.80%, then ramped roughly 300 basis points in six months while market rates were falling: classic deposit-acquisition pricing from a new bank buying market share. Nothing is wrong with taking it, but assume it normalizes toward the market once the customer base is built, and re-check the monthly sheet rather than assuming the rate is structural.
Disclosure: the incumbents still show more
Raqami frames its deposits honestly ('real profits are shared from actual investment performance, not promises') and publishes monthly historical rate PDFs. What it does not publish: the mudarib share or pool weightages, the machinery that lets a depositor verify how profit was computed. Meezan prints its 50/50 gross-income split and locks weightages three days before each month; BankIslami's declarations archive back to 2017 with pool-level sharing ratios. For a bank whose entire pitch is trust through technology, matching incumbent-grade pool disclosure should be table stakes, and it is not there yet.
Products: a deposit bank, for now
Raqami's launch shelf is deposits and payments: tiered savings, term deposits with auto-reinvest, goal-based Saving Pots that earn profit, and an Asaan account capped at Rs 3 million. There is no home finance, no car finance, no credit products; a supply-chain finance MOU signed in May 2026 is the first hint of an asset side. The incumbents run full shelves: Meezan alone spans home, car, bike, deposits, takaful bundling, and the Roshan diaspora stack, while BankIslami's AIK app already delivers digital onboarding at a full-service bank.
That matters beyond convenience. A Mudarabah deposit's profit comes from the bank's financing assets. An incumbent's pool is backed by twenty years of Ijarah and Musharakah assets; a new digital bank is still building the book that generates the profit it distributes. The structure is sound and SBP-supervised, but depth of the asset side is part of what a depositor is trusting.
Governance: a genuinely heavyweight board
This is where Raqami surprises. Its five-scholar Shariah board is chaired by Sheikh Dr. Mufti Muhammad Imran Ashraf Usmani, Vice Chairman of Meezan's own Shariah board and son of Taqi Usmani, and includes Mufti Muhammad Hassaan Kaleem of Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan, with Shariah certificates and account fatwas published and governance run on AAOIFI lines. A startup could not have bought more credibility. The governance question at Raqami is not who signed off, but the pool-mechanics disclosure noted above.
Verdict: who should switch, and how far
Savers with surplus cash: use Raqami now. A 10.00% to 11.50% June 2026 deposit sheet at an SBP-licensed bank with an Usmani-chaired board is a real offer, and the 7-day to 1-year tenor ladder plus Saving Pots make it a good yield sleeve. Size it as you would any young institution: your rate-chasing money, not your emergency fund, until the disclosure and track record thicken.
Everyone needing a full bank: stay with the incumbents for now. Salary accounts, financing needs, and anyone who values published weightages should keep the primary relationship at Meezan, BankIslami, or a peer, and revisit Raqami once it publishes pool mechanics and launches an asset side. Digital-only Islamic banking in Pakistan is clearly coming; on the evidence of mid-2026, it has arrived for deposits and not yet for banking. See our comparison hub for the full deposit-rate field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Raqami a real licensed bank?
Yes. The State Bank granted Raqami its commercial licence as a Shariah-compliant digital retail bank on May 20, 2026. It is sponsored by Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company and Kuwait's EnerTech, with deposits run on Mudaraba under a five-scholar Shariah board.
How do I deposit and withdraw cash with no branches?
Through Askari Bank's network: 700-plus branches and 800-plus ATMs handle cash in and out free of charge, with everything else done in the app.
Why are Raqami's rates so much higher?
Partly structure (a lean digital bank spends less on branches) and partly strategy: rates ramped from 7.30% to 7.80% at the December 2025 launch to 10.00% to 11.50% by June 2026 while market rates fell, which is deposit-acquisition pricing. Enjoy it, and re-check the monthly sheet before assuming it lasts.
Is my money as safe at Raqami as at Meezan?
Both are SBP-licensed and supervised. The practical differences are age and depth: Meezan has a two-decade asset book and full pool disclosure; Raqami launched deposits in December 2025 and does not yet publish its profit-sharing ratios or weightages. Sizing your exposure to a young bank accordingly is plain prudence, not a verdict against it.
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Can I get financing from Raqami?
Not at our review. Raqami launched with deposits and payments only; no home, car, or personal financing products were live, with a supply-chain finance MOU (May 2026) the first sign of an asset side. For financing, the traditional Islamic banks remain the only route.