KARACHI
Advisor to Chairman of Silk Bank Shaukat Tarin, Monday said the Silkbank is striving hard to capture the digital market in Pakistan as the future of digital or phone banking is rapidly growing throughout the world.
“Almost every house has three mobiles, but they don’t use the mobile banking through it,” Tarin said while replying to a question in a press conference held at a local hotel.
“We have to extend mobile banking culture in Pakistan with safety and securities of the customers,” he added.
Tarin also emphasised the importance of digital banking and how Silkbank is committed to providing more easy way to its customers. He also mentioned Silkbank’s business momentum will get further augmented by the addition of 35 new branches this year. The new branches are expected to contribute significantly to further growth in low-cost deposits. He said there are approximately 1.4 million credit cards, but the numbers of machines to accept the credit cards are not increasing in Pakistan.
The Bank’s newest initiative is the launch of the Digital Banking. Digital Silk has already been launched for the employees and is expected to be a game changer. Like credit cards, the offering is not dependent on a branch distribution network. Digital Banking has the ability to reach a much wider market segment, generating low-cost deposits and enable the bank to leap frog growth.
Tarin further disclosed that more than 50 per cent of its branches would be converted into the Islamic Banking as the Islamic banking is growing rapidly in the country compared to traditional banking.
He further disclosed that the Non-performing loans (NPL) of the bank had been reduced by Rs 10 billion in last few years which would definitely improve the credit line of the bank.
Replying to a question, he said the Silkbank is not going to acquire any other bank, but it is striving to increase its profitability.
For the first time, he said the Bank’s deposit base exceeded the Rs 100 billion landmark and closed at Rs 102 billion, highlighting an overall growth of 18 per cent as compared to December 2016. On the assets side, Bank’s advances also witnessed a growth of 20 per cent as compared to December 2016.
