PESHAWAR: The Bank of Khyber has posted historic Rs3.8 billion profit in 2020 despite challenges posed by the pandemic.

A statement issued here said that bank’s board of director meeting was briefed about the financial results for the year 2020. The meeting was chaired by the board chairman and additional chief secretary, Shakeel Qadir Khan.

It said that bank closed year with historic profit before tax (PBT) of Rs3.8 billion, whereas profit after tax (PAT) with rise of 64 per cent and stood at Rs2.151 billion as compared to Rs1.306 billion for the same period of 2019.

The bank maintained strong payout to shareholders declaring dividends of Rs.1.5 billion for year 2020 along with bonus shares at five per cent while earnings per share was at Rs.2.1 as compared to Rs.1.3 in 2019.

The deposits registered a growth of 11.47 per cent and increased to Rs203 billion, advances reached Rs129 billion whereas investments closed at Rs113 billion for 2020.

The board showed its satisfaction over the historical performance and growth in all operational areas of the bank and approved the accounts for the period ended December 31, 2020.

Shakeel Qadir Khan told the meeting that despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the bank’s performance for the year 2020 remained sound. He said that a sustained and visible improvement in all facets of bank’s operations were achieved which greatly helped in neutralising adverse operating environment.

He said that expansion of branch network, especially in remote and unbanked areas of the country, proved a landmark decision that ignited business potential of those areas and also enabled the bank in improving its spread by generating sizeable low-cost deposits.

The official said that bank’s presence in small towns and villages should go a long way in improving financial inclusion in under privileged areas of the country while bank’s ‘Raast Islamic Banking’ operations also grew considerably and a network of 94 branches was offering a range of Sharia compliant products and services to its clients.

He said that the results showed the confidence of people in the bank, which was committed to bring about socio-economic uplift of the province.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2021