Activists, officials deliberate on privatisation of sole women-only bank . PHOTO: FILE
The event was attended by officials of the Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan and regulatory authorities as well as women rights activists, bankers, representatives of civil society and development organisations.
The government has recently put up the bank for privatisation. The bank was first put up for sale in 1996 which was challenged in the court by Women Action Forum (WAF). As a result, the privatisation process was suspended.
FWBL CEO Tahira Raza said that ever increasing regulatory requirements, growing competition and squeezing margins have made it more difficult for FWBL to meet both ends with such small capital.
Speaking on this occasion, NCSW Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz said that one of the major hurdles in the way of women’s empowerment is lack of access and control over financial resources.
She said that the bank was created in 1989 to address this fundamental issue. At that time, the bank was given a dual mandate of providing development as well as commercial services like any other bank in the market.
The issues confronted by the bank in exploiting its full potential and offering products and services for the cross section of women particularly low income communities were discussed at length.
Continuously low levels of capital diverse expectations of stakeholders have been identified as main reasons for its low performance. A bank with dual mandate to serve unbanked and un-served market requires bigger capital whereas its capital level is set at Rs3 billion which handicaps it to compete with the commercial banks and also carry out research and develop innovative products for their target market.
The meeting recommended injection of capital and a sound time bound business plan.
“Only 14.3% of people in Pakistan have access to banking services out of which only 3% of them are women,” said Open Society Foundation Executive Director Dr Saba Gul Khattak.
Shahnaz Kapadia Rahat, a renowned trainer and facilitator, offered her complementary services and designed and facilitated the workshop to express her commitment to the Cause.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2017.
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