President, Habib Bank Limited, Zakir Mehmood, has said that the bank is giving special attention to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development in the country. Speaking at a meeting of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati), he said that the bank has establish 18 exclusive SME branches in the country, including five branches in Karachi, and rest in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot etc.
He noted that due to the policies of the government investors and industrialists were making investment in establishing new as well as expanding their existing units and added that banks and financial institutions have good chance to exploit this situation.
He said that lending in SME sector has touched Rs 50 billion and it is hoped that by the end of current fiscal year it would increase by another Rs 12 billion.
He said that mark-up rates in past two years remained very low but they are now on the rise and it is hoped that in near future these would further go up.
The bank chief said that Habib Bank is passing through restructuring process to improve its services. The Bank has 225 online branches in the country and the rest would be converted to online branches soon. The bank also has introduced some new products, providing housing finance facility to its customers, he added.
The HBL president noted that Habib Bank has made 50 million dollars investment in technology up-gradation. The bank also provides training facilities to its staff.
He said that due to availability of low mark-up rate of consumer financing facilities people have started purchasing cars due to which cars production which was around 30,000 cars per annum about three years back has reached 0.1 million cars per annum.
The bank chief said that the bank is paying 7 percent on long-term deposit.
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