DOHA - United Bank Limited (UBL), the third largest bank in Pakistan partly owned by Abu Dhabi Group of the UAE, yesterday opened its Corniche Main Branch relocated from Musheireb area.
Present at a ceremony to mark the occasion were Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Governor H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani, UBL President and CEO Atif R Bokhari and UBL Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Middle East Wajahat Husain.
UBL views Qatar in which it has a 37 years presence as a key market for its growth. The bank which has already a branch in Salwa road will be considering setting up another branch in the future.
"We consider it as a privilege to be operating in Qatar which has been progressing substantially in recent years and we want to participate and we are benefiting from the great policies of this country," UBL President and CEO, Atif R Bokhari told a news conference.
UBL currently has about 1,100 branches in Pakistan and is present in seven countries overseas, primarily in the GCC including UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen. The bank has also a branch in New York, subsidiaries in Switzerland and UK, a recently opened Representative Office in Kazakhstan and is considering setting up a similar office in China.
Bokhari said 2007 has been one of the best years for UBL in Qatar with the balance sheet growing by over 50 per cent in one year. "We are very hopeful that the continued growth in the country, we will be able to grow simultaneously as a bank in Qatar," said Bokhari.
As for its business in the Qatari market, UBL General Manager Asad H Burney said the bank will continue providing commercial banking products and services to its corporate clients as well as strengthening its consumer retail banking and is also to focus this year on small and medium size enterprises. With an asset size of about QR 600m, a large part of financing provided by UBL goes predominantly to the corporate area and about 15 per cent to the consumer retail segment.
UBL Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Middle East said the bank's retail banking will continue to grow and the emphasis this year will be on products for the small and medium size enterprises as well as developing further auto loans and introduction of mortgage loans.
© The Peninsula 2008
