Correction

25 Apr, 2015

The interview of Syed Majeedullah Husaini, CEO of Askari Bank Ltd, published in Banking Review 2014, April 20, 2015, erroneously carried a few factual inaccuracies. Quoting Husaini the interview said that bad loans in Pakistan's banking system currently stand at over Rs 700 billion, whereas it was Rs 600 billion. Husaini was also erroneously quoted as a former central banker, whereas he is not; instead his career spans more than three decades in leading commercial banks and financial institutions in and outside Pakistan.
The interview also cited Husaini as saying that the bank's new management aggressively provisioned for bad loans in CY13, opting to book a loss of about Rs 3 billion that year - whereas that number was Rs 5.4 billion. Lastly, Askari Bank was quoted to have "bid to acquire KASB Bank". However, while that was true at the time when Husaini's interview was conducted (January 2015), by the time the interview was published, Askari had opted out of the deal. The errors are regretted.

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