Farid Ahmed Khan Takes Charge as the new CEO for FINCA Microfinance Bank Pakistan

LAHORE: Farid Ahmed Khan, a prominent corporate leader, fund manager and investment banker, has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bank by FINCA Pakistan’s Board of Directors.

This was announced by Zarlasht Wardak, Chair of Pakistan’s board and Regional Director FINCA Impact Finance (FIF), MESA region.

With extensive local and international exposure, Mr. Farid Ahmed Khan is a seasoned financial services veteran, who brings with himself, 25 years of global experience in financial services including Fund Management, Investment Banking, Investment Research and Sales, Business Development & Project Finance.

Until recently, Farid was the CEO HBL Asset Management; the fund management arm of Habib Bank. He is also the Chairman of the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan. Before HBL, Farid served as the CEO of ABL AMC for over six years and was also the founding CEO of MCB Asset Management. Prior to that, he worked for MCB Bank as Head of Investment Banking Group.

Zar Wardak, commented on the occasion, “FINCA Microfinance Bank has proudly served the people of Pakistan with responsible financial products and services for more than 6 years. With the appointment of Mr. Farid Ahmed Khan, who brings a wealth of experience to this role, I am confident the team will continue to grow and fulfill FINCA’s mission to expand financial inclusion.”

Apart from the diverse local work experience, Farid has also worked in a variety of senior positions at reputable organizations outside Pakistan, including Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and CLSA Emerging Markets in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London and Istanbul. Moreover, he has also served on the board of FINCA Microfinance Bank and its various committees. He has also served on the boards of NADRA Authority, CFA Society Pakistan and has been a member of the Corporate Leaders Advisory Board of IBA, Karachi. Farid holds an MBA in Finance from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and got his CFA qualification in 1998. He is a regular speaker at business forums and an avid reader.

On this occasion, Farid Ahmed Khan stated, “I've long admired FINCA Pakistan from my position on its board, for its passion and zeal in serving the country's unbanked population. I am excited to be a part of a team that has, in the past 10 years, seen tremendous growth in reach and innovation. I'm setting high benchmarks for myself to grow it even further and am looking forward to serving the organization and in turn my country”.

 Mr. Farid will join the bank from September 16 as executive director for smooth transition and his effective date as CEO will be 1^st November 2019 subject to regulatory approvals.

FINCA Microfinance Bank continuing its impressive trajectory of growth and innovation in 2019; the Bank has been investing in technology since 2016,to bring about process efficiency, thus resulting in improved services to its customers.

With its recent Digital Field Automation (DFA) implementation, FINCA has revolutionized its lending business by completely digitizing the loan application and approval process; allowing credit officers to serve  consumers using tablets to complete all the requisites of loan application form and secure final approvals electronically. With the data electronically transferring into the Core Banking System with real time account openings and loan application processing;FINCA’s customer’s benefits from radical time savings and the convenience of a paperwork free onboarding.

The above, along with SimSim Urdu; an extension and maturing of the SimSim platform, thereby allowing FINCA Core customers to have their loans disbursed digitally. Meaningthat in conjunction with DFA, the bank is now able to have a digitized loan application process from mobilization of the loan till the final disbursement.

PACRA and JCR-VIS have affirmed FINCA Microfinance Bank Limited, a Long-Term Credit Rating of ‘A’ and a Short-Term credit rating of ‘A1’ with a “Stable” outlook in April 2019 & May 2019 respectively.