There's a new growth plan for DIB Pakistan

Dubai - New identity part of alignment to strategic positioning

Dubai islamic bank (DIB) Pakistan is set to capitalise on growth opportunities in the country by launching its new strategy to strengthen its position in fast growing banking sector of Pakistan.
Dubai Islamic Bank's group chief executive officer Dr Adnan Chilwan, who recently visited Pakistan to outline the group's detailed growth strategy for the franchise in the country, said Pakistan is a strategic country for DIB Group and its subsidiary here is an integral part of the group's ever-expanding global operations.
"Our consolidated performance at the group level has been phenomenal in past two years despite the challenging global macro-economic landscape and this is time to replicate the same success in Pakistan," Dr Chilwan told Khaleej Times during an interview.
Dr Chilwan, a leading authority in the field of Islamic banking and finance, made his first-ever visit to Pakistan in April to mark the first decade of successful operations of DIB Pakistan.  
He also launched new defined strategy that repositions the bank's medium-term plans alongside the transformational growth the group has achieved as part of their 2014-16 strategic agenda. He also unveiled the bank's new identity and branding to reinforce the alignment of DIB Pakistan with the group's overall positioning.
"Outperforming the market by three to four times consistently over the last eight quarters meant not just capitalizing on existing business but also creating opportunities where none existed. Whilst being cognizant and aware of the business and geo-political environment around us, we worked together to create this platform, which now promises sustained future performance as long as we keep our focus and commitment intact," Dr Chilwan said.
Dubai Islamic Bank was established in 1975 as the world's first Islamic bank in the UAE. The bank is listed on the Dubai Financial Market and has presence across all emirates in the UAE with growing international operations in Asia, Middle East and Africa. With group assets of nearly $41 billion, a market capitalisation of around $7 billion and workforce of more than 8,000 employees within the group, the organisation is considered one of the most progressive Islamic finance institution in the world.
DIB Pakistan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dubai Islamic Bank, UAE. It was incorporated in Pakistan as an unlisted public limited company on May 27, 2005 and commenced operations as a scheduled Islamic commercial bank with effect from March 28, 2006. Currently, it has a network of more than 200 branches and 43 branchless booths across 62 major cities in Pakistan.
"Our strategy is simple," Dr Chilwan said.
"Target the entire market, not just a niche. That's how we have grown so rapidly and that is exactly how we will sustain this momentum going forward. What we have achieved in the last two years has eclipsed all previous performance and it is now time to replicate the same success in Pakistan. The significant evolution in Islamic banking offerings means that any customer, corporate or retail, can be served," he explained.
About the DIB performance in first quarter, he said the bank had joined the billion US dollar profit club in the UAE's banking sector last year while in January-March 2016 quarter it earned more than Dh1 billion net profit, reflecting 18 per cent year-on-year growth in first quarter profit. Net revenues rose 11 per cent to Dh1.69 billion while customer deposits also climbed more than 11 per cent at Dh122.5 billion in first quarter of 2016.
"As the year progresses, we are confident that the performance leadership demonstrated by DIB over the recent past will carry through the rest of 2016 as we culminate our carefully crafted and progressive three-year growth strategy towards a strong conclusion," Dr Chilwan concluded.
- muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com