KARACHI: During the first quarter of this fiscal year (Jul-Sept), banks disbursed Rs98.1 billion, which is 20 per cent of the overall target of Rs500bn and 38pc higher than disbursement of Rs70.8bn made in the corresponding period last year.

Among major banks, ABL and UBL achieved 24.7pc each of their targets, HBL achieved 23.1pc and MCB 20pc.

Under the specialised banks category, ZTBL disbursed Rs7.8bn or 8.7pc against its target of Rs90bn while PPCBL (Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank) disbursed only Rs1.1bn i.e. 10pc against its target of Rs11.5bn during the period under review.

Within 15 domestic private banks, Summit Bank achieved 40.4pc, Faysal Bank 31pc, Bank Alfalah 30pc, Silk Bank 29.2pc, Bank of Khyber 26.3pc, NIB Bank 25.8pc and Bank Al Habib 23pc of their annual targets whereas Standard Chartered disbursed Rs3.5bn.

Seven microfinance banks as a group disbursed Rs3.1bn against their annual target of Rs28.2bn .

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014