The 57th Annual General Meeting of Muslim Commercial Bank was held on Monday at registered office of the Bank at Islamabad, chaired by Tariq Rafi, Director MCB. Welcoming the shareholders, Tariq Rafi said that in the year 2004 the progress and performance of the MCB was satisfactory. The pre-tax profit was Rs 4.2 billion and after tax profit was Rs 2.5 billion as compared to Rs 3.6 billion and Rs 2.2 billion respectively in 2003.
The gross advances reflected satisfactory growth from Rs 104 billion to Rs 144 billion. The deposits as at the end of 2004 were Rs 220 billion. After tax earning per share has gone up to Rs 7.53 from Rs 6.61 in 2003.
The MCB director informed the shareholders that Moody's has given highest FSR rating to the MCB among all the rated banks in Pakistan. MCB has been declared by Euromoney as the 'Best Domestic Bank' in Pakistan for the 4th time in last 5 years.
The Chairman further said that for the last 6 years MCB is regularly declaring dividends. In 2004 two interim cash dividends of 10 percent and 15 percent were given and 10 percent final dividend was declared in the AGM today.
Tariq Rafi said that Inshallah the bank will further grow and would launch new products in 2005. MCB has the largest ATM network and it shall further be extended, he said, adding more focus shall be given to upgrade the IT systems. "There shall be more online branches."
The questions of shareholders on the accounts were answered by the Chairman who was assisted by the Bank President, Mohammad Aftab Manzoor and CFO, Ali Munir.
The shareholders adopted the audited accounts and consolidated accounts of the MCB and its subsidiaries. Final dividend in the form of bonus share at 10 percent was also approved.
The shareholders appointed A. F. Ferguson & Co, Chartered Accountants and Riaz Ahmed & Co Chartered Accountants as statutory Auditors for the next term.
The placing of quarterly accounts on the MCB website instead of mailing by post to shareholders was also approved in the AGM.-PR