Pakistan

Pakistan

The 28th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Nearly 6,700 valid responses were received from voters representing fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world.

Part microfinancier, part bank, First Women Bank Ltd’s very raison d’etre is corporate social responsibility, namely to help half the Pakistani population – its women – have access to financial services.

Standard Chartered is much more than the last international bank still standing when it comes to this award. True, foreign banks such as HSBC, Barclays, RBS, ABN Amro and Citi have either sold or scaled back their operations in Pakistan in recent years.

Pakistanis like their corporate clichés, their ‘gamechangers’, ‘brand ambassadors’ and ‘paradigm shifters.’ But there’s one bank in Pakistan where the term ‘superbrand’ seems to sit right, barely a decade after it was rolled out – Tameer Bank, led by Ali Rias, and its easypaisa system.

Small and medium-sized enterprises have been somewhat neglected by Pakistani bankers in recent years, despite accounting for around 90% of the 3.2 million private businesses in the country and contributing about a third of GDP. SMEs play a vital role in Pakistan’s economy, but many still struggle to access funding.

Allied Bank (ABL) only launched its investment banking business 12 years ago, but the fifth-largest commercial bank in Pakistan has quickly won a deserved reputation as the country’s best in financing and capital raising.

Habib means ‘beloved’ or ‘friend’ in Urdu, Pakistan’s official language. But it could just as easily mean solid and secure, for that’s how many Pakistanis feel about their biggest private-sector bank, with its 1,600 branches across the country.