Foreign Banks Eye Pakistan Market 
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

ISLAMABAD: The recent announcement from Pakistan's NIB Bank of its plans to acquire 70 per cent of Pakistan's PICIC bank in a $378 million deal is yet another event which will be well received in the markets, said an article published in Gulf News.

The Pakistani banking sector has been abuzz with reports of prospective buyouts in the past year. During this time, the decision by Standard Chartered bank to buy out Pakistan's privately-owned Union Bank has only confirmed the interest of international banks in Pakistan's banking sector.

Additionally, ABN-Amro, the Dutch bank has bought Pakistan's privately owned Prime Bank to enlarge in the country.

NIB is indeed based in Pakistan but its largest shareholder -Temasek, the Singapore state investor company, is a large foreign entity. For overseas banks looking at the Pakistani market,interest in the country is driven mainly by the strong performance of Pakistani banks in recent years.

Pakistan's banks have seen their profits soar on the back of a strong economic recovery which has spurred demand increasingly from individual consumers, companies and a variety of investors.

This has meant that banks have been at the centre of the recovery process, fuelling the growth cycle through lending to economic stakeholders in different sectors of the Pakistani economy.

The discussion surrounding Pakistan's banking sector is indeed a timely one. There are many who believe that the country's banks will indeed remain active performers in the economy, successfully building up their presence in the years to come.

Pakistan's population base of at least 160 million provides the client base to support the expanding activities of banks in years to come.

Services which were previously unknown to Pakistani clients such as the increasing use of phone banking for a variety of functions from paying bills to settling credit card dues, are now a common feature in Pakistani banks.●