Bank Islami has gained momentum in Pakistan with successful working of 14 branches across the country in a short span of one year. Sixteen more operating branches of Bank Islami Pakistan are in the offing throughout Pakistan by the fall of the current calendar year.
According to president and chief executive officer Bank Islami Hasan Bilgrami, since the inauguration of the bank by Premier Shaukat Aziz in Karachi in April 2006, 14 branches have sprung up in Islamabad, Mirpur, Wah Cantt, Quetta with ten branches being in commercial capital of Pakistan. Other branches in the offing are for Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad and other important cities and towns of Pakistan by the end of this year, raising the total to 28 operating branches of Bank Islami Pakistan.
He said that the bank is a conglomerate of the bankers United Kingdom (UK), United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan in the private sector to serve customers and clients in accordance with pure and simple principles of Islamic Shariah strictly. The bank is offering authentic compliant products and services mainly at retail level.
The people are very well responding to Bank Islami as evident from its first quarter of the current calendar 2007 report. During this quarter, the bank has more than doubled the number of account holders alone compared with 2006, resulting in an increase of more than one billion rupees.
During the same quarter, the bank has successfully raised over Rs1.2bn against rights issue. In the light of Bank Islami bright and shining performance, the state bank of Pakistan (SBP) has granted for Bank Islami Pakistan, extension, to meet minimum capital requirement of Rs 3 billions.