The Al Baraka Islamic Bank-Pakistan (AIB) on Thursday announced that its branch in NWFP town of Abbottabad would start working on September 1, bringing the total number of branches in Pakistan to 12.
A bank spokesman said the AIB planned to open six more branches by the year end to take its total network of branches to 18, covering most of the major business centres of the country.
The Al-Baraka Pakistan enjoys a short-term rating by JCR-VIS of 'A-1' and 'A' for long term. It offers a comprehensive range of commercial banking services, strictly on Islamic Banking principles, catering to the retail, consumer, SME and corporate sectors. Its is a part of Al-Baraka Islamic Bank, with its head office in Bahrain and which, in turn, is one of the 10 banking units of the Al-Baraka Banking Group (ABG), a Bahraini Joint Stock Company listed on the Bahrain and Dubai stock exchanges.
The ABG is a leading international Islamic bank with a Standard and Poor's long-term rating of BBB- and a short-term rating of A-3. ABG offers retail, corporate and investment banking and treasury services strictly in accordance with the principles of the Sharia. The authorised capital of the ABG is $1.5 billion, while the total equity amounts to about $1.2 billion.