KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan has reiterated that the country’s banking sector is stable and strong, stressing that it is regularly engaged with banks for capital improvement, according to a press release sent by the central bank on Monday.
“Since the imposition of moratorium on KASB Bank Ltd, rumours are being spread that the financial condition of some banks is weak and they may also face supervisory action,” stated the release.
“These are also being accompanied with misleading information attributed to the SBP. The SBP has taken strong notice of such misinformation and it is clarified that no such information has been circulated through media nor it has been placed on SBP’s website. The public need not to pay attention to such rumours, which are trying to undermine the overall stability and performance of the banking system.”
The statement added that the equity base of the banking system has increased by 11% to above Rs1,000 billion in September, 2014 from Rs900 billion in September 2013.
“It is reiterated that the banking sector’s performance has been quite impressive. As already reported in the quarterly banking system statistics for end September 2014, the banks in Pakistan earned historical profit before tax of Rs176 billion for first 9 months of the year 2014, while its solvency remains strong with Capital Adequacy Ratio(CAR) of 15.5%.”
Regarding the moratorium on KASB Bank, the SBP said that the “action only aims at resolving the problems faced by the institution thus protecting depositors’ interest”.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2014.
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