March 28, 2003	Friday	Muharram 24, 1424

LAHORE, March 27: The Habib Bank Limited has recovered non-performing loans (NPLs) of Rs11 billion during the last five years.

This was stated by HBL president Zakir Mahmood, while speaking to businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Thursday. He said the bank had also restructured NPLs worth Rs10 billion during the same period and issued fresh loans to the tune of Rs42 billion.

He said the restructuring of the bank had enabled it to make profit for the last three years. He said the bank had spent Rs1.6 billion to improve the bank technology and launch the ATM service. He said some 350 branches of the bank in 30 different cities had been inter-linked with one another. He said the HBL was also giving loans to the small and medium sectors from its 27 branches.