‘SBP to hold inquiry in HBL’s New York case’

Will submit report within two weeks, says parliamentary secretary

ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will hold an inquiry into the closure of Habib Bank Limited’s (HBL) branch in New York and will submit a report within two weeks, said Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal on Tuesday.



“A committee headed by deputy governor of SBP has been constituted, which will examine all aspects of the issue and submit its report within a period of two to three weeks, fixing responsibility,” he said while speaking on a Calling Attention Notice.

The notice was moved by Sheikh Salahuddin, Dr Fouzia Hameed, Kishwer Zehra, Syed Waseem Hussain and Abdul Waseem, to draw the finance ministry’s attention towards closure of foreign branches of United Bank Limited/HBL.

However, commenting on a query, the parliamentary secretary said that UBL’s branch had not been shut down and it had no such issue.

Afzal said that US authorities had imposed a fine on the HBL branch for not complying with its rules regarding reporting of transactions, adding that HBL had settled the penalty by agreeing to pay a fine of $225 million.



“Now it is working on how to close the branch,” said the secretary. “There will be no negative impact on Pakistan’s deposits with closure of the bank branch.”

He said that around 142 Pakistani bank branches were operating in different countries and complying with rules and regulations.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2017.

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