The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued the Certificate of Incorporation to Faysal Islami Currency Exchange Company (Private) Limited, a fully-owned subsidiary of Faysal Bank Limited (FABL).
The development was announced by FABL, one of the country’s largest Islamic banks, in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday.
“This refers to our letter dated November 1, 2023, with respect to the formation of an exchange company as a subsidiary of Faysal Bank Limited, under the directions of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
“We are now pleased to you that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued the Certificate of Incorporation to Faysal Islami Currency Exchange Company (Private) Limited,” read the notice.
As part of the procedure, under the next step, the application will now be submitted to SBP for issuance of a license to commence operations, as per the SBP Exchange Companies Manual.
Back in September last year, the Board of Directors (BoD) of Faysal Bank Limited announced that it would establish an Exchange Company (EC) as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Several commercial banks made similar announcements, which came after the SBP, in its bid to strengthen controls amid the massive fall in the rupee’s value in the open market back then, decided to introduce ‘structural reforms’ in the EC sector.
“As part of these reforms, leading banks actively engaged in foreign exchange business will establish wholly-owned Exchange Companies (EC) to cater to the legitimate foreign exchange needs of the general public,” said the SBP in a statement, back in September last year.
In addition, the SBP also raised the minimum capital requirement for EC from Rs200 million to Rs500 million, raising the barrier to entry for the private sector.
As per Faysal Bank’s latest financial results, the bank declared a consolidated profit before tax (PBT) of Rs24.11 billion for the first nine months of 2023 (January-September), over 60% higher than the Rs15.02 billion recorded in the same period of the previous year.
Faysal Bank announced earnings per share (EPS) of Rs7.94, as compared to EPS of Rs5.05 in SPLY.