Arif Usmani, the newly-appointed President of the National Bank of Pakistan, has expressed his resolve to increase the bank’s share price from Rs41 to Rs100.
Addressing the female employees of the bank during a ceremony held recently to mark the Int’l Women’s Day, the NBP president said during his three-year tenure, he would leave no stone unturned to ensure transparency in the workings of NBP so as to improve the bank’s standing in the market.
“The book value of the bank is Rs100 but the market doesn’t believe in NBP’s numbers,” he stated. “Perhaps we are not marketing the bank in an efficient way.”
He said the total number of NBP employees is 25,000 (including contractual employees) “but we only highlight 15,000”.
The NBP president stressed that the bank should put forward actual figures in a transparent manner in order to gain trust in the market.
The government had appointed Arif Usmani as president/chief executive officer of NBP last month. Usmani is a seasoned banker with more than 35 years of experience across several geographic markets and senior positions in various banking disciplines, including a number of critical risk management positions in the Asia Pacific region.
