A meeting of the Board of Directors of The Bank of Punjab was held on October 25, 2017. During the meeting, un-audited Financial Statements of the Bank for nine months ended September 30, 2017 were approved by the Board. During first nine months of the year 2017, Net Interest Margin (NIM) of the Bank significantly improved to Rs 11.0 billion as against Rs 8.9 billion earned during the corresponding period of last year.
The Bank's Non-Markup/Interest Income remained at the level of Rs 3.7 billion. Accordingly, the Bank earned profit of Rs 6.0 billion before capital gains and provisions as against Rs 4.5 billion for corresponding period last year. However, profit before tax for first nine months of current year remained at the level of Rs 5.3 billion and earnings per share (EPS) remained at Rs 1.70.
As on September 30, 2017, deposits of the Bank reached the level of Rs 505.2 billion as against Rs 453.2 billion as on December 31, 2016 and bank's total assets increased to Rs 614.4 billion. Similarly, the Gross Advances and Investments remained at Rs 333.1 billion and Rs 228.3 billion, respectively. The Bank's Tier-I equity also improved to Rs 33.4 billion as against Rs 24.2 billion as on December 31, 2016.
The Bank has been assigned long term entity rating of "AA" by The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) with short term rating being at highest rank of "A1+". The Bank currently has a network of 474 online branches, including 57 Taqwa Islamic Banking Branches, spanned across the country. Further, Bank also has a vast network of 350 ATMs providing 24/7 banking services to the customers.-PR