The Meezan Bank Limited, the first and largest Islamic bank in Pakistan, has launched 'Ladies Exclusive Banking' at its selected branches in Karachi. Meezan Bank President and CEO Irfan Siddiqui announced this new service while addressing a press conference at Bank head office here on Thursday.
He said the Meezan Bank is the first in the country to introduce a dedicated banking section, which would cater to banking needs of Pakistani women. This new service provides an exclusive banking area as per the set Shariah principles for the bank's ladies customers in a more comfortable environment, he added.
Irfan Siddiqui said: "The dedicated Customer Services Officers in only ladies banking area will provide consultancy for a full range of our Shariah-compliant banking services, including 9.00 am to 5.00 pm online banking, term certificates, current and saving accounts, consumer financing and 24/7 banking services."
He said that initially Meezan Bank has launched ladies-exclusive banking in DHA Phase-II Ext. and Barkat-e-Hyderi branches at Karachi with a dedicated Ladies-Banking section.
"After this pilot project to evaluate the customers' interest we would provide the same facility in other branches as well", he added. In the past five years, Meezan Bank had grown from being a small niche player operating with only 6 branches and Rs 5.1 billion in deposits at the end of 2002 to a bank now with 63 online branches and a deposit base of Rs 34.4 billion. "We have a plan to expand our branches network to over 100 branches by the end of this year", Irfan said.