A focus on the glorious journey of service to the nation

National Bank of Pakistan, the largest banking institution of the country has completed sixty two years of its service to the nation. It was established through an ordinance on November 9, 1949 and started its operations with an issued capital of Rs15 million and 100 employees. Following is a comparison of NBP’s journey from its 1st year of operations in 1950 to 2010:
NBP is providing service to the nation from its inception and has pioneered a number of new financing schemes and has taken a number of bold initiatives in the banking history of Pakistan. It is the first bank which started loans for agriculture under Supervised Agriculture Credit Programme and is still the only bank which provides financing against gold. NBP is also the first bank which started Peoples Credit Scheme for small traders.

The Bank’s
corporate voyage

During its corporate voyage, NBP won a number of international and national awards at different platforms. These include Bank of the year Award, Global Finance Award, The Banker, Euro Money, Kissan Time Awards and Asian Banker Awards. The bank has grown to a level of being the largest lender to the agriculture and industrial sectors, making it the largest lender in the banking industry of Pakistan. According to the “Top 1000 World Banks 2010” announced by The Banker magazine of UK, NBP has outperformed all banks in Pakistan. Every year, The Banker publishes a list of Top 1000 banks with rankings based on strength, size, soundness, profit and performance. Based on Tier 1 Capital Strength, NBP has been placed as the Top Bank in Pakistan. NBP is the only bank from Pakistan that has made it to the list of top 500, among global leading banks. Another landmark achievement for the bank was witnessed in June 2010, when NBP became the first ever bank of the country to cross the ‘One Trillion Rupee’ bench mark.
From Corporate and Retail Banking to Agriculture and Islamic Banking, NBP is offering valuable services in almost all areas of banking. Apart from this, NBP has taken major steps in the areas of risk management, information technology, operations and human resources.The bank strongly believes in hiring young energetic employees and also attracting, developing and retaining good quality professionals. During the past few years, NBP has hired more than 1500 business graduates of high caliber and despite recession, NBP continues to hire quality human resource through its Management Trainee Programme which comprises of a rigorous selection process with the coordination of Institute of Banker’s Pakistan (IBP), Pakistan’s only recognised institute dedicated to providing technical training services for the banking industry. The bank believes that it is the quality of HR that provides a strong basis for sustainable growth and a competitive edge for the institution. It was stated by Senior Executive Vice President and Group Chief HRM & AG Dr. Mirza Abrar Baig during his visit to Lahore for the second phase of selection process of the MTO programme’s Batch 14. The Bank also strongly believes in equal opportunity employment and pays special attention to encourage women in taking part in organisational development, which in return allows their career progression. This is proved by recent conferences and seminars held specifically for women managers and officers of NBP by its Human Resources Department. NBP has always looked after its existing and retired employees. The salary packages and benefits offered by the bank are considered as the best in the corporate sector. Some of the initiatives taken by the management in the recent past are mentioned below:

n Induction of about 3,000 temporary and foundation staff in regular cadre of the bank in pursuant to the stated policy of the Government to provide employment opportunities in the country. Unprecedented promotions in the recent past. Almost every employee has received either one or two promotions and in some cases there have been three promotions. This step was taken to address the genuine aspirations of the employees after a long period of time.
n Pay raise by over 200 per cent of all employees since 2002.
n Payment of record bonuses
to the employees.
n Introduction of various new benefits and extension of existing benefits to employees in the areas of medical and other allowances.
n Record increase in house building and car loans in last two years.
n Employment to children of retired and deceased employees.
n Payment of highest incentives and awards to the committed employees.
n Opening of new avenues for the existing employees based on merit for key internal and overseas postings.
n Regular increase in the pension of retired employees to give them a feeling that NBP cares for them even after their departure from the bank.
n Female empowerment program, employee communication, birthday greetings, tremendous boost to sports and cultural activities are some of the other tools adopted to motivate the employees.

Due to above mention steps, every employee of the bank is appreciative of the management’s compassionate, caring and positive approach. In return, the NBP workforce has reciprocated by their sincere contribution in making this bank the strongest ever and most commercially viable institution in the country.

Social initiative

The bank’s standalone AAA rating (the highest in the industry), the highest RoE in the Asian Banking Industry and its comfortable capital adequacy ratios, position it well in front of competitors for future growth.The bank has also fulfilled its commitment towards the community and has been one of the major contributors in the times of need for the nation. NBP heavily contributed for the earthquake of 2005, the Balochistan earthquake in 2008 and the KPK floods in 2008. NBP contributes and donates to reputed organisations, educational institutions, hospitals, NGOs, Institutions supporting disabled persons and other CSR activities on regular basis for educational and public welfare purposes.
Apart from supporting public welfare projects, the bank regularly participates in sports, educational, health and art and culture related activities.
The focus in less pressing times has been on the promotion of sport activities in the country. Patronage is being given for the promotion of the national game of hockey. Apart from hockey, special attention is given to cricket. To promote sport activities, NBP has built a state-of-the-art sports complex in Karachi where world class facilities are available.
The decade of 2000 is considered as the most progressive in the history of NBP, during which the bank went public with an IPO of 23.2 per cent shares and listing in all domestic stock exchanges (2001). NBP underwent major brand revitalisation, redesign of logo, modern standardised branch outlook, HR restructuring and reorganisation to reduce management tiers and induction of qualified personnel. It continued with gender equality and comprehensive training programmes launched to meet the changing needs. Due to all these radical changes, NBP gained market recognition and received over 30 international awards.
In this corporate equilibrium, JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company Limited (JCR-VIS) has reaffirmed the entity ratings of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) at ‘AAA/A-1+’ (Triple A / A-One Plus) with ‘Stable’ Outlook.

Local presence

NBP dominates the commercial banking sector with a market share of 14 per cent in total banking sector deposits. The deposit base has exhibited healthy growth and the bank has maintained strong liquidity indicators. In addition to enjoying a large retail deposit base, the bank also holds a major portion of total public sector deposits. NBP also enjoys one of the highest levels of capitalisation, among the larger banks.
In view of adverse macroeconomic conditions, an upward trend has been witnessed in infection levels. In addition to accretion of fresh non-performing loans in private sector lending, the bank has also recently classified some of its public sector advances. Even after adjusting for net NPLs, capitalisation level is considered strong. Two asset recovery groups have been set up last year to actively pursue the recovery of non-performing assets or achieve settlement through realisation of collateral. Net profit for 2010 was maintained at the preceding year’s level due to contraction in spreads. Improving bottom-line results through reduction in cost of deposits in line with other large banks has been prioritized for the on-going year and ahead. Moreover, NBP is also looking to leverage its international presence to capture higher volumes of trade business.
The pace of revamping the IT infrastructure has accelerated in recent months. Pilot launch of core banking application has been conducted as a move towards centralization of operations, while several other modules are undergoing user acceptance tests. Upgradation of branch connectivity is underway and will steadily be implemented throughout the network. With a strong brand, customer base, branch network, largest array of products and services, NBP is truly the nation’s bank providing selfless service to the people of Pakistan for the last sixty three years.

The writer is Media Manager, National Bank of Pakistan