HBL was established in Pakistan in 1947 as the first commercial bank. Over the period, the bank has grown staggeringly to become the largest private sector bank with over 1500 branches and 830 ATMs across the country and a customer base of over five million customers.

The bank was privatised in 2004 with major ownership stake and management control held by Aga Khan Fund for economic development (AKFED). HBL has its presence in 25 countries besides having its subsidiaries in Hong Kong and the UK, affiliates in Nepal, Kenya and Kyrgyzstan and representative offices in Iran and China. HBL has the largest Corporate Banking portfolio in the country with an active Investment Banking arm. Moreover, SME and Agriculture lending programs and banking services are offered in urban and rural centers.

Performance Snapshot, CY15:

Pakistan's largest commercial bank, HBL in CY15 showed how a big balance sheet can be translated into exemplary profit numbers despite tough conditions for the banking industry. Recall that the banking spreads have squeezed significantly of late and effective taxation is also higher after the imposition of super tax and higher tax incidence on dividend income. But the strength driven from the non-core income, mainly gain on sale of securities has proved to be more than sufficient for HBL to help post sizeable profits.

The top line grew modestly in CY15- understandably so as the interest rates have fallen remarkably. But a rapidly growing balance sheet ensured there was growth at the top nonetheless. No marks for guessing, the bulk of mark-up income came from investments in government securities. That the IDR has gone up to as high as 76 percent tells why banks are not too worried about lending aggressively - when even not-so-lucrative yields on government papers are doing the trick.