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KARACHI: Habib Bank Ltd (HBL) President and CEO Nauman K. Dar will retire on Dec 31, according to a stock exchange filing on Monday.
The bank did not specify any reason for Mr Dar’s exit. His term at the helm of the country’s largest bank was marred by a penalty of $225 million that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) recently imposed on HBL for its non-compliance with risk management and anti-money laundering rules.
As a result, HBL suffered a net loss of Rs14.1 billion in July-September against a net profit of Rs9.8bn in the comparable quarter last year.
HBL is Pakistan’s biggest lender with net assets of nearly Rs175bn at the end of September.
Mr Dar took the top job in 2012, although his association with HBL began in 2003 when he joined Habib Allied International Bank UK as CEO. He previously worked at Citibank and Bank of America.
Mr Dar’s annual remuneration in 2016 was Rs81.3m, up 8.2 per cent from a year ago. This translates into a monthly remuneration of nearly Rs6.8m for 2016.
Chief Financial Officer Rayomond Kotwal will serve as interim CEO until the board makes a formal appointment.
Meanwhile, HBL appointed former central bank governor, Salim Raza, as director on the board. Before his stint at the helm of the State Bank of Pakistan, Mr Raza worked for Citibank in the Middle East, Africa and United Kingdom.
Separately, the board created a new position in the bank’s hierarchy and appointed Sagheer Mufti as chief operating officer with effect from Jan 8, 2018. “In his last assignment with Citigroup, Mr Mufti was Citibank’s global head for anti-money laundering operations,” the bank statement said.
Last month, HBL appointed another former central bank governor, Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, as senior consultant on international strategy and operations.
The exit of Mr Dar and the appointment of at least three seasoned bankers with experience in international banking suggest that the bank is trying to address “control and compliance issues” that have hit its profitability.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2017
