Faysal Bank Limited recently conducted a virtual corporate briefing session. Through the session, the Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, Syed Majid Ali, briefed the analyst community and shareholders about the Bank’s business strategy, financial performance and its outlook.
The Bank has made significant progress on its strategy of conversion to an Islamic bank. The 87% of the Bank’s branches are now offering dedicated sharia-compliant financial solutions. In 2020, despite wide-ranging business and operational challenges posed by COVID-19, the Bank converted 65 branches to Islamic, which is a testament to its commitment of Islamic conversion.
The Bank continues to increase outreach to its customers and opened 21 new sharia-compliant branches during the previous year. Alongside investment in brick-and-mortar infrastructure, the Banks is aggressively working on enhancing its suite of digital offerings.
In terms of financial performance, FABL posted a profit after tax of Rs. 6.5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020, as compared to Rs. 6.0 billion last year. Islamic banking business contributed a 40% share of profit.
The Bank’s net advances portfolio stood at Rs. 318 billion as at December 31, 2020 out of which 60% of the portfolio is Islamic. The deposit closed at Rs. Five hundred forty-one billion registering a healthy annual growth of 18.1%.
Faysal Assets Management Limited (FABL’s subsidiary) turned a corner and posted a profit after tax of Rs. One hundred forty million during 2020 after incurring losses for a long time. FAML is assigned an asset management rating of AM2. VIS, the rating agency, has recently revised the outlook on rating from ‘Stable’ to ‘Positive’. The revision in rating outlook reflects improving market share, experienced top Management and support from the parent. Assets Under Management have shown a remarkable growth of Rs. 39 billion from Rs. 7.8 billion to Rs. Forty-seven billion since the acquisition of control by FABL in November 2018.
About Faysal Bank Limited
Faysal Bank Limited was incorporated in Pakistan on October 03, 1994, as a public limited company under the provisions of the Companies Ordinance, 1984 (now Companies Act, 2017). Its shares are listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited. The Bank is mainly engaged in Conventional and Islamic Corporate, Commercial and Consumer banking activities. As at December 31 2020 the Bank had a network of 576 branches including 500 Islamic banking branches.