Zafar Masud appointed BOP President

KARACHI: Zafar Masud has been appointed the president and CEO of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) by the Punjab government. 

The appointment was made via notification issued on March 17 by the finance department of the Punjab government. According to the notification, the appointment is subject to clearance of the fit and proper test by the State Bank of Pakistan. “The terms and conditions of his appointment shall be settled separately,” the notification said. 

When contacted by Profit, Zafar Masud said he has accepted in-principle. However, he said there are a couple of loose ends to be tied-in, as mentioned in the notification. 

Masud currently serves as the interim CEO for InfraZamin Pakistan, a credit financing company still being developed with help of international finance organisations. He also serves in the Board of Directors of National Bank of Pakistan and has also worked as consultant for Karandaaz Pakistan. 

Until August 2018, he was the Director General of National Savings at the Ministry of Finance. His previous banking experience includes Barclays Bank (where he was CEO for Southern Africa), Dubai Islamic Bank, Citibank and American Express Bank Pakistan. 

In making this decision, the Punjab government is returning to their fall back option, as Masud’s name had previously been in the running as a potential candidate for the slot. 

Previously, Atif Bajwa was named as the president and CEO of The Bank of Punjab in January 2020. However, he had excused himself from the position citing personal reasons and returned to Bank Alfalah as president in February 2020, leaving the BoP slot open once again. 

BOP STRUGGLES TO FIND PRESIDENT

For all of 2019 and now 2020, the bank has been embroiled in controversy regarding its top position. This is mostly to do with issues regarding the ‘Fit and Proper Test’ for executives, where either the State Bank has refused to clear a candidate, or has not received a test request from BoP at all. 

After the end of President Naeemuddin Khan’s tenure in December 2018, Khalid Siddiq Tirmizey, the Deputy CEO of the Bank of Punjab, was made the acting president of the bank. In April 2019, after evaluating many candidates, the Punjab government appointed Talib Rizvi as the BOP president. However, soon after in June 2019, in a reply to the bank’s request dated April 26, 2019, for the ‘fit and proper test’ clearance, the SBP refused to clear Talib Rizvi for the position, stating his lack of ‘diversified experience’ as the core reason.

This controversial move surprised many in the banking industry. There were even questions about political pressure to remove Rizvi. However, the whole exercise, in which many other candidates were also shortlisted, was shelved, and Tirmizey returned as the Acting President. 

Then, after many months, Atif Bajwa’s name was approved for the slot of the President of BoP during a meeting of the Punjab cabinet in Lahore on January 7, 2020. That meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. Among the 19-point agenda, both Bajwa’s and Masud’s names were discussed as potential candidates for president.

Yet despite the finalization over Bajwa, there was still some confusion about whether Bajwa was actually going to join, or whether there was still additional processing regarding the role. 

When contacted by Profit earlier, the SBP categorically stated that they did not receive any such request vis-a-vis fit and proper test from BoP for Atif Bajwa. 

It is still not confirmed whether BoP has sent the request for the fit and proper test to the SBP for Zafar Masud.