BoK witnesses robust growth in five years

PESHAWAR: The Bank of Khyber (BoK) has recorded a robust growth in all sectors during last five years despite challenging economic conditions and marginalized businesses in the country.

The bank is well positioned to meet all financial and regulatory requirements liable under rules of the central bank, said the Managing Director, BoK Bilal Mustafa, while predicting a rosy future of the public sector financial entity of the KP province at the Guest Hour program here on Thursday.

Bilal Mustafa said the Bank has stood at a great financial position as compared to previously 2008, adding that the bank deposits swelled at Rs 60 billion from Rs 22 billion with growth of 163.73 per cent by end of December last year.

During last five years, he further said the bank advances to deposits ratio was also jumped at Rs 26 billion from Rs 10 billion.

Out of total 96 per cent lending ratio, he added the bank has provided 65 per cent lending facility in KP province. Similarly, the bank assets also grown at Rs 82 billion from Rs 32 billion, he maintained.

While complying with rules of central bank, Mustafa said the bank has achieved the Minimum Capital Requirements (MCR) target of Rs 9 billion last year.

The bank is currently in a position to meet current (MCR) target of Rs 10 billion set by State Bank of Pakistan in this current financial period, he added.

By the end of December last year, he said the bank profits before-tax has also raised at Rs 1.1 billion from Rs 127 million previously recorded in a five years back.

He said the trade and business recorded Rs 29 billion in last five years.

Similarly, he said export has also recorded a substantial increased from Rs 496 million to Rs 14,311 million in this period.

The total of amount in collection of foreign remittances has also soared at Rs 11 billion from Rs 275 million during the last five years, Mustafa claimed.

"We had also grown branches network during last five years, which was raised at 80 from 34 branches, including conventional and Islamic banking system", he said.

He further informed that the figure would touch at 100 by establishing 20 more new branches in the current financial year. He claimed that bank has shown progress in various sectors due to outreaching its networks to other parts of the country. 

Musfata said that Bank had also implemented different micro finance schemes including Bacha Khan Khpal Rozgar Scheme, and Hunarmand Rozgar Scheme of the provincial government during last five years.

He informed that a total of Rs 1.8 billion had so far disbursed on purely merit basis, while the amount recovery ratio was remained at 99.5 per cent.

When asked about the non-performing loans, he said the Bank has a total NPLs of Rs 3.8 billion, but the ratio of releasing of loans was declined at only 3 to 4 per cent during last five years.

He further said that a total loans' recovery stood at Rs 500 to Rs 700 million every year.

Regarding the disbursement of Rs 1 billion as industrial loans allocated by KP government, he said the bank has so far received only one application for this loan facility.

To a query about the total share of public and private in BoK, he informed the government share is around 70 per cent, while only 30 per cent investment from the private sector. When asked about writing off loans, he said the bank has only write off five loans so far during last five years.