Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) has earned pretax profit of over Rs 1.7 billion as on December 31 2007, reflecting growth of 183 percent. This was observed and appreciated by the Board of Directors of the bank in its meeting held here, said a press release on Friday.
The turnaround in bank's profitability was mainly due to substantial increase in its recovery which grew by 21 percent. The bank recovered Rs 63.2 billion as on December 31, 2007. Exceptional growth was witnessed in SAM recovery which grew by 76 percent as the bank recovered SAM loans of Rs 5.1 billion as compared Rs 2.9 billion last year.
The bank's disbursement also reached new heights when it touched the mark of Rs 56 billion. It substantially enhanced its outreach by increasing the number of borrowers served to 415,756 from 443,874 in the previous year, it said.
The bank managed to raise its deposits to Rs 4.4 billion which grow by 52 percent, thus adding to its financial viability for provision of more banking services for its customers particularly rural clientele. The bank maintained its credit rating as AAA/A-1+ with stable outlook as JCR-VIS credit rating company during the period under review in its report has reaffirmed the bank's credit rating.-PR