Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The Bank of Punjab (BOP) continues to expand its branch network as part of its strategy to reach out to its customers across the country. In this regard, BOP inaugurated two branches in Karachi today, a conventional branch at Khayaban-e-Tanzeem, Tauheed Commercial Area, and one Taqwa Islamic Banking (TIB) branch at LuckyOne Mall. These branches were a part of 11 branches being opened in Karachi in 2021 as a part of its strategy to expand its network in South, with special focus on Karachi.
BOP’s Islamic branch at Lucky One Mall was inaugurated by Mr. Zafar Masud, President & CEO BOP, Mr. Saeed Anwar & Mr. Syed Ghazanfar Abbas Jilani (Directors of the Bank) & Mr. Sohail Tabba, Chairperson ICI Pakistan Limited. This branch is the first Islamic branch in Lucky One Mall, and BOP’s first Mall branch in the country. On the occasion, Mr. Tabba opened the branch’s first account and committed to route significant business of his Group, which is one of the most sought after conglomerates in Pakistan. BOP has set up a dedicated trade desk at the Mall to cater to the needs of SME, Commercial and Corporate businesses in the vicinity including Federal B Area and North Karachi industrial areas.
BOP’s Touheed Commercial Area branch, located at Khayaban-e-Tanzeem is a conventional branch offering BOP’s entire range of retail, consumer and SME/Commercial products & services. The branch shall also house BOP’s first priority banking lounge in Karachi – “Khaas”. On this occasion, a presentation on Khaas offering was arranged for existing and potential customers, in which salient features of segment offering including dedicated lounges, relationship managers, products and other offerings were explained. Mr. Zahid Mustafa, Group Chief Consumer & Digital Banking at BOP apprised the participants of the salient features of the offering. Acclaimed veteran architect Mr. Kaleem Siddiqui, who is designing BOP’s Khaas lounges explained the philosophy and design elements of BOP’s Khaas lounges which include customer privacy & comfort, showcasing local art & design, while providing modern banking services to today’s customers. The presentation was followed by a Q&A session from customers.
As part of Bank’s three-year strategy approved by the Board, BOP is aggressively pursuing branch expansion in Karachi and Sindh province to claim its market as one of the largest Commercial Banks of the country. The branches opened today are in addition to 9 branches opened earlier in 2021, consisting of 8 conventional and 3 Islamic Branches. With the addition of today’s two branches, BOP’s total branch network in Karachi has risen to 30 branches – 26 conventional & 04 Islamic. In order to reinforce their commitment to their strategy, the Board of Directors held it’s annual strategy and budgetary sessions in Karachi on 27th and 28th December 2021
In 2022, the Bank will continue to expand its footprint in Karachi and Sindh province to better cater to all customer segments, including individuals, SME, agricultural as well as corporate customers.
As of now BOP has a total branch network of 662 branches, including 548 conventional and 114 Islamic branches serving more than 1.5 million customers.
With the recent performance and rolling-out of the mid-term strategy, the Bank stands outs among peer group as a robust & very rapidly growing commercial Bank. Currently, the Bank with a book size of over Rs. 1.1 trillion is 2nd largest Public Sector Commercial Bank of Pakistan. Besides offering a range of permissible products and services to its clients for meeting their modern days’ banking requirements, the Bank has also established its footprint in the areas of consumer financing, agriculture credit, corporate/ wholesale & investment banking and Alternative Delivery Channels (ADCs). While achieving the objective of financial inclusion through its presence in remote and unbanked areas, the Bank is playing its due role in the economic growth of the Country.