Employees of Allied Bank Limited from all across Pakistan gathered to celebrate 70 years of successful operations of the Bank since its inception in 1942 as Australasia Bank. The Board of Directors, heads of businesses and staff members including the longest serving employees attended the event to celebrate the milestone and revisit the history of the Bank as well as to rejoice the successful transition to becoming one of the best managed banks in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Khalid A Sherwani, CEO, Allied Bank congratulated the whole Allied Bank family for completing 70 years of successful operations and said: "Today, through this platform, we would like to reassure our current and prospective customers that we are a Bank with the longest history, a bank that is appealing to do business with and a bank that is here to stay for a long time, if not forever."

He informed that after 18 months of its inception, the Bank had raised a deposit of less than half a million rupees which rose to Rs 7.7 million on the eve of independence, ie, 1947. Upon privatisation in 1973, the deposits rose to Rs 54 million which increased to Rs 56,000 million in 1992, following the privatisation. In 2002, the deposits surged to Rs 103,000 million whereas in 2012 - after passage of barely a decade, the Bank is looking at a closing figure of Rs 500,000 million.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012