KARACHI: The newly established Sindh Bank will establish 50 branches across the country, said CEO Bilal Shaikh on Saturday. He revealed that 70 percent of the branches will be set up in Sindh and the rest in commercial hubs of other provinces. “Initially we will have five branches in this month, three in Karachi, one in Hyderabad and one in Naudero, Larkana,” he elaborated.
Shaikh indicated that Sindh Bank will have branches in each of the 23 districts, 10 will be in other provinces and 17 will be located in the commercial capital, Karachi. “It is a very competitive environment and our main target will be mostly small growers, the salaried class and small and medium scale enterprises,” Shaikh stated, adding that presently, large loans do not work in favour of banks. He said that the Sindh Bank will also operate two branches in Lahore and one each in Sialkot, Peshawar and Quetta.
Shaikh said that one of the bank branch will be inaugurated on Dec 26, 2010 another will be opened in Hyderabad between December 20 and 25 while in Karachi, one branch will be commissioned on I I Chundrigar Road, on the Governor House and another on the Shara- e-Faisal this month.
Referring to his experience, Sindh Bank Chief Executive insisted that he was determined to follow the prudential regulations of the central bank and run the bank along modern lines.
He informed that the board of directors will meet on December 13, 2010 and submit its manual for approval by the SBP on Dec 14 for commencement of commercial operations in 2011. On the global recession, Shaikh said that his bank will offer credit to small growers and lower income groups at very competitive rates and efforts will be made to build and maintain the confidence of clients.
“We will do our best to target clients with micro-finance instruments; big debtors have been a bitter disappointment to commercial bankers and it is much easier to achieve recovery from small debtors as compared to influential personalities,” he added.
Speaking on the priorities of the new organisation, he said that economic development in the province will be given precedent and the bank had been tasked with providing easy credit small growers and individuals to augment the capital base of the rural economy. He said that the bank is listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and has been created under the Banking Companies Ordinance (BCO).
