KARACHI, July 30: Deposits of all the 38 local and foreign banks operating in Pakistan recorded a huge increase of Rs40.3 billion during January-March 2005, according to data released by the State Bank. The total deposits of all banks increased from Rs2,392 billion at end-December 2004 to Rs2,432.3 billion at end-March 2005.
State-run National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and privatized Habib Bank Ltd. (HBL) and United Bank Ltd. (UBL) maintained their first three positions respectively as the banks with the largest deposits. At end-March NBP and HBL had Rs444.4 billion and Rs395.9 billion worth of deposits whereas UBL’s deposits stood at Rs245.6 billion.
Muslim Commercial Bank now renamed as MCB Bank and Allied Bank Ltd. (ABL) claimed fourth and fifth positions having total deposits of Rs235 billion and Rs136.5 billion.
The overall deposits of these banks commonly referred to as five major banks totalled Rs1,457.4 billion or 60 per cent of the deposits of the banking system. See Table. A notable development in deposit holding during the first quarter of this year was that Bank Alfalah came closer to
ABL. Whereas ABL deposits stood at Rs136.5bn the deposits of Bank Alfalah were only slightly below that i.e. Rs134.5 billion. In fact, at end-December 2004 Bank Alfalah had more deposits than ABL — Rs129.7 billion against Rs126.4 billion. It is the only bank except for five major banks which has a deposit base of more than Rs100 billion.
That is why bankers have now started talking about six major banks instead of five. The cumulative deposits of these six banks totalled Rs1,600 billion or 65.5 per cent of the total deposits of all local and foreign banks in Pakistan.
At the end of March 2005 there were 38 banks operating in Pakistan including 27 local and 11 foreign banks. There is no change in the number of banks even now. Among the local banks, four are state-owned, three specialized banks and 20 local private banks. The state-owned banks are: National Bank of Pakistan; First Women Bank; The Bank of Khyber; and The Bank of Punjab. The three specialized banks are: Zarai Taraqiati (Agricultural Development) Bank of Pakistan; Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan; and Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank Ltd.
Group-wise breakdown of deposits show that at the end of March 2005 the cumulative deposits of state-owned and specialized banks stood around Rs520bn or more than 21pc of the overall deposits of the banking system. The deposits of specialized banks totalled Rs14.4 billion only as two of these banks have been facing serious problems and are undergoing restructuring and one is in the process of winding up. The share of the deposits of specialized banks in overall deposits of the banking system was a negligible 0.6 per cent.
The SBP data show that at end-March this year 20 local private banks had deposits of more than Rs1,662 billion which constituted 68.3 per cent of the total deposits of the entire banking system.
On the other hand, 11 foreign banks boasted of Rs235.5bn deposits which were equal to 9.7pc of the deposit base of the banking system. Bank deposits have been rising despite low rates of return chiefly due to huge inflow of remittances from overseas Pakistanis and fast economic growth.
