Meeting of the Board of Directors (BoD) of National Bank of Pakistan was held at the bank’s head office in Karachi in which the BoD approved financial statements of the bank for half year ending June 30, 2019. Profit before taxation amounted to PKR 20.4 billion, registering an increase of 18.8% against June, 2018. After-tax profit amounted to PKR 11.1 billion being 11.1% lower than PKR 12.5 billion of June 2018. The drop in after-tax profit is mainly due to the higher taxation charge of 46% compared to 27% for June 2018. Overall revenues of the bank amounted to PKR 53.8 billion which is highest in the banking industry, and is also 18.4% higher than the bank’s revenues for the corresponding period last year. Growth is attributed to volumetric growth in earning assets, and increase in the discount rate over the period. During the period, the bank paid PKR 47.1billion as profit to its depositors. On the back of increased deposits and higher profit rates thereon, the profit paid is 81.9% higher than PKR 25.9 billion paid for the half year ended June 30, 2018. While net interest income increased by 18.0% to PKR 35.6 billion, the bank’s non-fund income also increased by 19.3% to PKR 18.2billion as against PKR 15.3 billion earned during the corresponding period last year. Complementing objectives of the government and SBP, the bank is aggressively promoting home remittances through banking channels. This has considerably increased the bank’s market share in home remittances business as transaction volumes and remittances grew by 29% and 19% respectively from June ’18. Representing 13.8% of the banking industry’s total assets, total assets of the bank stood at PKR 2,864.0 billion which is 2.3% higher than PKR 2,798.6 billion as at December 31, 2018. Strength of the bank’s balance sheet is driven by the wide market outreach and branch banking network where the focus remains on low-cost deposit mobilization. Representing 12.3% of the total banking industry loans, gross advances of the bank amounted to PKR 1,091.9 billion, marginally higher than PKR 1,059.5 billion as at December 31, 2018. However, compared to PKR 912.6 billion of June 2018, gross advances stand increased by PKR 179.2 billion or 19.6%. The bank’s deposits amounted to PKR 2,093.4 billion, higher by PKR 82.0 billion or 4.1% as against PKR 2,011.4 billion as of December 31, 2018. This represents 79.0% of the bank’s total liabilities and translates into 13.7% share of total banking industry deposits. Customer deposits that form 84.0% of the bank’s funding pool remained stable during the period and amounted to PKR 1,758.0 billion.