PESHAWAR: The Board of Directors of the Bank of Khyber (BoK) held their 165th meeting at Peshawar to approve financial results for the year 2020. The meeting was chaired by Shakeel Qadir Khan, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Chairman BoK Board of Directors.

The meeting was attended by Atif Rahman, Finance Secretary, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Maqsood Ismail, Javed Akhtar, Asad Muhammad Iqbal, Rashid Ali Khan, Saleha Asif and Ihsan Ullah Ihsan, Managing Director BoK. The Bank closed year with historic profit before tax of Rs 3,806 million, whereas profit after tax with rise of 64 percent and stood at Rs 2,151 million as compared to Rs 1,306 million for the same period of 2019.

The Bank maintained strong payout to shareholders declaring dividends of Rs 1.5 billion for year 2020 (Rs 1.5 per share) along with bonus shares at five percent. Earnings per share was at Rs 2.1 as compared to Rs 1.3 in 2019. Deposits registered a growth of 11.47 percent and increased to Rs 203,071 million, advances reached Rs 129,063 million whereas investments closed at Rs 113,478 million for 2020.

The board showed its satisfaction over the historical performance and growth in all operational areas of the Bank and approved the accounts for the period ended December 31, 2020.

The chairman further said that expansion of branch network especially in remote and unbanked areas of the country, proved a landmark decision which ignited business potential of these areas and also enabled the Bank in improving its spread by generating sizeable low-cost deposits.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021