Bank's Acting President Tariq Mahmood inaugurated the Allama Iqbal Town Branch in the presence of bank's Regional Manager Ijaz Ahmed and bank's Agriculture Incharge Farooq Abid.
While talking to newsmen, the acting president said that this year they opened 26 new branches and two more on the way by the end of 2005, taking the total number to 98. He averred that the bank's business was growing and was earning profit as well.
He was expecting to earn more than Rs 3 billion profit by end of this year. "The bank's deposits stand at Rs 110 billion while its advances were Rs 80 billion. By the end of 2005 Askari's paid up capital would be Rs 2 billion. The bank's non-performing loans has come down to 3.5 percent, which conforms with the international standard," he added.
According to him, the bank wants to introduce new technology and software in the bank for the facilitation of their customers. Right now their customers could pay their electricity bills through ATM, online banking and internet, while they were also planning to introduce a similar facility for gas bill and talks in this regard with Sui Gas, was in progress. Moreover, Askari Bank was planning to open 40 new branches in 2006, of which seven would be dedicated for Islamic banking, as a growing number of people were showing interest in Islamic mode of banking.
Tariq Mahmood gave the credit to former State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)'s Governor Dr Ishrat Hussein for making the banking sector grow and added that his banking policies were good.
On interest rate, he said that right now it was stable and there is no chance of its increase or decrease; however if the mark up rate decreases the people's trend towards saving would decline. He blamed companies' mismanagement for default, interest rate has nothing to do with it.
He maintained that the economy was growing and investment was pouring in the country, and in the process rate of bank loaning was also growing.