NBP makes progress in regulatory compliance for US operations

NBP makes progress in regulatory compliance for US operations

KARACHI: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has made significant progress in compliance with regulatory matters in USA operations.

In its financial report for quarter ended September 30, 2019, the bank said that in 2016 its New York branch entered into a written agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York State Department of Financial Services (US regulators).

This agreement requires the bank to address certain compliance and risk management matters relating to anti-money laundering and the US bank secrecy law requirements.

This agreement also requires implementation of the requisite system and controls and allocation of adequate resources to ensure full compliance with such requirements.

The NBP’s management continues to address the matters highlighted in the written agreement and in the subsequent inspections, and get them independently validated.

“NBP has made considerable progress and seeks to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.”

The NBP said that heightened attention to compliance is expected across the bank’s international franchise which will also gain from the development and implementation of an integrated strategy.

As per quartered ended September 30, 2019, the total assets of the bank amounted to Rs3,025.37 billion which is 8.1 percent higher than Rs2,798.57 billion as at December 31, 2018.

This represents around 13.8 percent of the banking industry total assets.

The bank’s market share in deposits, advances and investment is around 14 percent, 12 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Strength of the bank’s balance sheet is driven by the wide market outreach and branch banking network where the focus remains on low-cost deposit mobilization.

The bank said that due to the challenging economic environment the non-performing loans (NPL) of the bank have increased by Rs19.3 billion. As of September 30, 2019 NPL totaled to Rs152.49 billion as against Rs133.36 billion at the end of year 2018.

“This translates into loan infection ratio of 13.9 percent which is slightly higher than 12.6 percent as of December 31, 2018.”