April 30, 2004
Ms. Nilofar Bakhtiar, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Minister in-charge Ministry of Women Development, Social Affairs & Special Education, said that the First Women Bank Ltd. has demonstrated excellent financial strength & stability. She confidently stated that the Ministry will now increase its shareholding in the bank to become its major stakeholder. This will help the Bank to play a more proactive role in women oriented projects.

She congratulated Ms. Zarine Aziz, President FWBL and her team for setting new trends in the financial sector and proved as one of the most successful banks in the public sector. She especially mentioned the excellent performance during the last three years, which has increased the net asset value per share by 472% over 2000 from Rs. 5.50 to Rs. 31.46; the Earnings per share increased from Rs. 2.07 to Rs. 8.03, reflecting growth of Rs. 288% over 2000 and the Net-equity been increased from Rs. 110 Million to Rs. 629 Million, reflecting growth of 472%.

The Advisor expressed that the Bank’s new credit products with the focus for women and its lending portfolio reflects the true model of FWBL that caters to women at all levels of economic activity and hoped that the Bank will introduce more products focusing on serving the poorest of the poor women.

Highlighting the bank’s performance Ms. Zarine Aziz said that FWBL turnaround resulted through phase-wise restructuring and reorganisation, strategic directions of the management, commitment of the team, support from the Government, SBP and the loyal clients. The accumulated losses of Rs. 138 Million as at Dec. 2000 stands wiped out. Net profit before tax increased from Rs. 26 Million to Rs. 270 Million in 2003, reflecting overall growth of 938% over 2000. The Average monthly pre-tax profits increased from Rs. 2.1 Million per month to Rs. 22.5 Million per month in 2003. Deposits increased from Rs. 3.4 Billion in 2000 to Rs. 8.1 Billion in 2003, reflecting growth of 138% over 2000. Advances increased from Rs. 604 Million in 2000 to Rs. 1.3 Billion in 2003, an increase of 117% over 2000.

Ms. Zarine Aziz, stated that the entire network of 38 branches has been fully automated. The Bank has directly outreached to the rural women in Gujranwala, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura districts for combating child labour in carpet weaving industry by identification of viable income generating projects and disbursement of micro-credit to their families. This program is the part of the Bank’s collaboration with ILO-IPEC.