National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday assured the top officials of the First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) to resolve their issues on priority basis for making the bank a key asset for Pakistan financial sector.
During the Standing Committee on Finance, which met under the Chairpersonship of Fauzia Wahab to discuss the performance of the FWBL, the committee appreciated the performance of the bank and took serious note of the problems and the challenges of the FWBL. Responding to various issues, the committee promised the bank's senior officials that the issues highlighted would be resolved on priority basis. This would ensure that the public entity could function successfully and become an asset for Pakistan financial sector and provide fair opportunities to the women of Pakistan.
The president, First Women Bank Limited, briefed the standing committee that FWBL, the country's only bank for women, was set up in 1989 with the aim to boost career women of the country who at present, have little access to institutional credit and with the vision to be the lead bank for women: dynamic, adaptive & responsive to their special economics needs, offering the best financial services and the best banking practices.
She informed that FWBL has unique charter of undertaking the conduct of all forms of business of banking company in a manner designed to meet special needs of women and to encourage and assist them in promotion and running trade and industry. She further disclosed that the bank has 38 branches with 557 employees across the country.
The official of the bank highlighted that the bank paid up capital is Rs 284 million and the shareholders equity stood at Rs 1093 million. The president further stated that the bank has Rs 11,566 million in deposits and has advanced Rs 7,393 million. The bank has gathered equal to Rs 13,596 million as total assets with the profit of Rs 44 million and net asset value per share Rs 38.55.
It has been pointed out that the bank has satisfactory 'credit ratings'. It has a unique model, which deals in micro, SME and corporate banking. The bank's main areas of financing are agriculture, chemicals, construction, crafts/jewelry, education and health etc, she added.
The data further revealed that the bank has disbursed Rs 27.6 billions out of which 58% has gone to the women. The bank has been engaged in providing complete banking service but also some support services exclusively for the women eg computer literacy and the bank has a collaboration with different national, international private, public and non governmental organisations eg UNDP, MOWD, NRSP etc.
Since the government has earmarked the bank for the privatisation, its activities have stopped. She further elaborated that the bank is facing challenges like implementation of Basel-II, minimum capital requirement, organisational restructuring and human resource re-organisation etc wherein bank looks forward to the government for immediate intervention. The meeting was attended by Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Abdul Rashid Godal, Mir Nighat Parveen, Kashmala Tariq and Khwaja Muhammad Asif MNAs besides officers from Ministry of Finance, Revenue, Planning and Development and the First Women Development Bank Limited.