The ABN Amro Bank will continue the expansion and investment in the Pakistani banking sector. This was stated by the Chief Executive Officer of ABN Amro Asia, Jeroen Drost in an interview here. ABN Amro has formally re-branded all Prime Commercial Bank branches in Pakistan on September 1 marking the completion of the merger of the two banks.
As a combined entity, ABN Amro is now the second largest foreign bank in Pakistan. "We are very pleased with the acquisition", Drost remarked adding that it was a very nice environment to come here. He further stated that we will continue the expansion and the investment and would also be looking for the opportunities in the market. Drost was of the view that the main drive will now come from the Islamic banking to accelerate the Islamic products.
He pointed out that there has been a growing interest in the Islamic banking and said that ABN Amro initiated the retail Islamic banking activities in Pakistan some months ago and now have three branches and are in the process of opening such a branch in Dubai as well as in Indonesia.
Drost hoped that ABN Amro would be in a position to offer full range of the Islamic banking products on the consumer side towards the end of the year. He said that on the commercial side, his bank was already a very active player.
Navid A. Khan, ABN Amro's Chief Executive Officer in Pakistan, who was also present on the occasion, pointed out that a great number of people have shown a strong interest in the Islamic banking.
Drost further stated that he was very confident about the overall development of Pakistan's economy whose growth in the last couple of years has been astounding. He said that combined with the introduction of regulatory framework and the supervision the financial sector has even accelerated more.
Drost of the view that the competition for the acquisition of banks here shows the confidence of the international banking world in the development of the Pakistani financial market.
About the Asian strategy of the ABN Amro Bank in Asia, he said that this was aimed at tripling the business in five years' time. In the first 18 months, the business has been increased more than 40 percent as compared to earlier which suggests that the approach is right on the track. Drost said that in Pakistan, the ABN Amro is doing very successful business during the last six years.