A meeting of the Board of Directors of The Bank of Punjab was held on October 26, 2018. During the meeting, un-audited Financial Statements of the Bank for nine months ended September 30, 2018 were approved by the Board. During the period, the Bank achieved substantial growth in earnings and remained fully compliant with SBP’s prescribed capital and provisioning requirements. The BOD appreciated the efforts of Bank’s management for achieving growth of 68% in Bank’s before tax profit during first nine months of year 2018 as compared to corresponding period of last year. Owing to aggressive marketing, fast track expansion and improvement in Bank’s assets’ profile, during first nine months of the year 2018, Net Interest Margin (NIM) of the Bank significantly improved to Rs.14.1 billion as against Rs.11.0 billion earned during corresponding period of last year. The Bank’s Non-Markup/ Interest Income remained at the level of Rs.2.9 billion. Accordingly, the Bank earned profit before tax of Rs.8.9 billion as against Rs.5.3 billion for corresponding period of last year thereby registering a massive growth of 68%. Further, Earnings Per Share (EPS) of the Bank remained at Rs.2.06 per share. As on September 30, 2018, Deposits of the Bank reached the level of Rs.568.3 billion as against Rs.556.3 billion as on December 31, 2017 and Bank’s Total Assets increased to Rs.663.0 billion. Similarly, Investments and Gross Advances remained at Rs.202.5billion and Rs.416.9 billion, respectively. The Bank’s Tier-I equity improved to Rs.32.5 billion as against Rs.26.8 billion as on December 31, 2017.As on September 30, 2018, the Bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) improved to 13.29%. Accordingly, the Bank stands fully compliant with SBP’s prescribed CAR requirement. The Bank has been assigned long term entity rating of “AA” by The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) with short term rating being at highest rank of “A1+”. The Bank currently has a vast network of 552 online branches, including 70 Taqwa Islamic Banking Branches, spanned across the country. Further, Bank also has a network of 479 ATMs providing 24/7 banking services to the customers. Published in Daily Times, October 27th 2018.