Sindh Bank Limited was established on October 29, 2010 with seed capital of Rs.10 billion, wholly subscribed by the Government of Sindh. It commenced full-scale banking business in April 2011 and within just seven years, emerged as one of the fastest growing commercial banks in Pakistan, having established 330 on-line branches spread across 169 towns and cities of Pakistan. Out of these, 14 branches are dedicated to Islamic Banking.
Administratively, the branches are spread over the following four geographical regions:
With the assistance and support of the Government of Sindh, duly facilitated by the State Bank of Pakistan, the Bank embarked upon a Business Revival Plan, incorporating time-bound capital injection of Rs.14.7 billion by June 30, 2020, duly approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors, which was presented before the Sindh Cabinet.
In accordance with the Plan, a capital injection of Rs. 11.7 billion has been received so far, a new senior management team has been inducted in the areas of Risk Management, Corporate & SME Banking and Operations and Mr. Imran Samad appointed as the President & CEO of the Bank effective September 20, 2019.
Mr. Samad has more than 25 years of experience in Banks/Financial Institutions in the positions of President & CEO, Managing Director and as Senior Executive/Group Head in the areas of Credits, Compliance, Portfolio Management, Retail Banking, Corporate Finance, Islamic Banking, Agriculture
Finance, SME, Micro Credit, etc., Mr. Samad also has a proven track record of turning around two under-performing Banks/Financial Institutions.
Led by Mr. Samad, President & CEO, the Bank’s management is aggressively pursuing a strategy to turn-around the Bank, with focus on reducing NPLs, improving governance and controls, motivating the Bank’s retail banking team to boost customer deposits and restoring Bank’s profitability and capital adequacy. The measures taken so far have resulted in restoration of customer confidence with customers deposits registering a rise from a low of Rs. 104 billion to over Rs. 134 billion as at December 31, 2019 within a short span of just 3 months, revival of some major correspondent/money market relationships and achieving compliance with regulatory CAR.
Going forward, the Bank plans to introduce the Relationship Manager concept for increasing business via business hubs to be established in 10-15 main cities, complemented by strengthening the Trade function, to handle new business generated by these Hubs. Further, new Asset and Liability product launches are planned in the near future.
Sindh Bank’s current medium to long term entity rating, assigned by VIS Credit Rating Company (Formerly JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company), is ‘A+’ (Single A plus), whereas its short term rating is ‘A-1’ (A-One), with a ‘Stable’ outlook, indicating good credit quality with adequate protection factors in the medium to long term and high certainty of payment with excellent liquidity factors in the short term.
Human Resource development has always remained a major focus area for the Bank. The Bank has been offering in-house as well as arranging ex-house training in various disciplines since its inception. Presently, the Bank has 3 fully equipped training centers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, to cater to the training needs of the different regions. Training is provided in diversified disciplines including Retail Banking, Regulatory Compliance, Credits, Islamic banking, soft skills, personal development etc.
Sindh Bank is aware of its Corporate Social Responsibilities and is serving the marginalized segments of population. During 2019 the Bank facilitated 43 thousand beneficiaries of GOP’s Benazir Income Support Program and disbursed Zakat to another 105 thousand people on behalf of Government of Sindh, Zakat & Usher Department.
History and Overview