BoK embarks upon ‘journey of transformation’ by taking various initiatives: report

PESHAWAR: The Bank of Khyber (BoK) has embarked upon a transformation journey and in the initial stages the bank will invest to strengthen its foundation, deepen products & services offering, build network and digital capacity in order to achieve strong and sustainable profit growth in future, said White Paper on KP Budget for financial year 2022-23.

The core objective of this journey is to serve all stakeholders including customers and patrons with an agile, accessible and accelerated banking experience.

The Bank of Khyber (BoK) was established in 1991 through an Act of the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (formerly NWFP). The bank started commercial operation in November 1991 and become scheduled bank with the State Bank of Pakistan in 1994.

The bank was listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited (formerly Karachi Stock Exchange Limited) in 2006.

For successful completion of its transformation journey, following is the summary of some of the key current initiative of bank.

It is expanding branches to provide more comprehensive coverage of KP and greater network across Pakistan and introducing brand new mobile banking App to provide superior user experience and features.

Allocating record lending capacity at subsidised rates to SME sector in KP through Raast SME Refinancing Scheme (collateral based) and SAAF Scheme (collateral free). Taking lead role in the banking industry to increase availability of agriculture financing in KP by whole banking industry.

The bank has introduced value added accounts for KP public sector employees through special bank account with very attractive features and consumers loan products at discounted rates.

The bank is focusing on trade finance & FX income on growing non-markup income from financing trade related activities in order to improve the bank’s return on capital. It also has special focus on facilitating home remittances from migrant workers to their families in KP through their bank accounts.

The bank is also exclusive partner to KP government in its landmark Insaaf Food Card project to distribute Rs2100 per month to 1 million low income households in KP to help with food purchases in the high inflation environment.

The bank is also advocating equal opportunities and welcoming environment for women with increase ratio in career advancement to women. The bank has already increased female employment ratio from 6 percent to 9 percent in the last 12 months and opportunities are being created for women for career advancement for more senior roles.

In connections with its initiative regarding brand awareness and corporate awareness, it has hired an experience marketing and communication team to strengthen brand awareness and marking outreach through digital and conventional channels.

Despite challenging and competitive operating environment owning to Covid-19 pandemic and overall economic conditions during the year 2020 and 2021, the bank sustained its focus and achieved healthy results during these testing times.

During FY 2021, profit before tax was recorded at Rs1680 million as against Rs3,806 million of the previous year. Profit after tax for the same year stood at Rs1104 million against Rs2152 million of the last year that translated into earnings per share of Rs1.05 against Rs2.05 in 2020.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022