The Bank of Khyber (BoK) has shown tremendous improvement in the Islamic banking as deposits have increased to Rs 2.1 billion and finances reached about 2.1 billion in a short span of time. The bank has converted four branches of Hayatabad, Bannu, Nowshera and Quetta into full-fledge Islamic banking branches.
This was stated by Managing Director (MD) BoK Qazi Munir-ul-Haq while talking to a group of newsmen here at the bank headquarters on Friday.
He said that approximately 35 officers/executives have been imparted specialised Islamic banking training, which has enabled the bank for further conversion of branches.
He attributed the achievements of the bank to the Shariah Board of the bank and said it was comprised of national and international repute of Islamic scholars, like Professor Khurshid Ahmad, Justice Taqi Usmani, Dr Mehmood Ghazi, Mufti Ghulam-ur-Rehman and Dr Shahid Hassan Siddiqui, who are supervising the affairs of the Islamic banking and ensured its true implementation according to the Shariah.
"BoK, a provincial public sector bank, is playing a vital role in the economic development of the country in general and NWFP in particular," he said, adding, "this is evident from the fact that lending of the bank is 63 percent in the NWFP, which has benefited industrialists, traders, contractors and other sectors of economy.".
The bank through its special products, like micro-finance, consumer finance and agriculture finance, has facilitated the people at gross-roots level. He said that an overview of the bank performance during last two years has shown that the bank has made significant improvement in all financial indicators.
Highlighting the achievements made by the bank during last two years, Qazi Munir-ul-Haq said that the longstanding issue of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) pending since 1995 has been successfully resolved and the bank has generated a handsome amount of Rs 616 million from the public issue of December 2005.
PUBLIC CONFIDENCE: "The public reposed extreme confidence in the performance of bank, which is evident from the fact that the issue has been oversubscribed by 7 times," he said.
He said that the core business activities of the bank have also made tremendous improvement and reached up to Rs 11 billion, which will further strengthen the profitability of the bank. The deposits have shown a fair increase and reached up to Rs 17 billion, he said.
Similarly, he said, the earning per share has been increased from Rs 2.15 to Rs 2.34, which will further strengthen the confidence of the market. The profits have made a good improvement and increased from Rs 264 million to Rs 287 million as on December 2005.
The general resources of the bank are at a satisfactory level to the tune of Rs 884 million, which provides a sound foundation to the bank. The bank has made a total recovery of Rs 520 million during 2005, including rescheduling and restructuring, which was the landmark achievement.
In connection with provision of modern banking facilities to the depositors, the MD said that all the branches of the bank have been made online and five more ATMs are in pipeline of installation.
He said that during last one year the bank has also launched new products like Zabardast and Regular Amadani schemes to strengthen private deposit base of the bank. Furthermore, CNG rickshaw scheme for the general public was introduced to resolve the growing problem of environmental pollution in the provincial metropolis.
FINANCING SCHEMES: The bank, he said during last two years had also introduced house, car and motorcycle financing schemes for government employees, which has not only benefited government servants, but have also ensured the safe lending.
The bank has also actively involved in some major public sector projects, like Peshawar Bus Terminal and Malakand-III Hydel Power Projects.
"The measures taken during last two years shows the interest and determination of the Board of Directors and management for actively making BoK a leading bank in banking industry of the country," he concluded.
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