KARACHI: The Finance Ministry, lifting a six-month moratorium imposed on KASB Bank Ltd in November 2014, has approved its merger with BankIslami Pakistan Ltd (BIPL).
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the moratorium was lifted as the depositors of the former KASB Bank are now depositors of BankIslami and are free to operate their accounts maintained at the respective branches of the former KASB Bank as per their convenience.
KASB Bank had been in trouble since 2009 as it failed to meet the Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) and Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR). The case became complicated when a Chinese company showed interest in buying the bank but the request was turned down by the SBP.
BankIslami, in a statement, said that all branches and customers of the former KASB Bank will be considered as BankIslami’s from Friday (today). “They (the customers) are free to operate their accounts without any restriction whatsoever,” it said.
The merger has made BankIslami the 11th largest bank with a network of 317 branches in 93 cities across the country and having more than 600,000 customers.
The equity of BankIslami was Rs9.95 billion as of April 30, 2015 and is expected to increase to Rs11.4 billion following completion of the rights offering by mid-May. The bank’s CAR was 23 per cent as against 10pc prescribed by the State Bank.
