Awards for Excellence 2008: Pakistan

Muslim Commercial Bank is again nominated best bank in Pakistan. Moreover, MCB has proven itself to be one of the best-performing banks in Asia, and garners our award this year for best overall regional bank in Asia. The award is well deserved. MCB posted a 26% rise in full-year 2007 profits, to PRs15.3 billion ($242 million). Analysts attribute the strong performance to an aggressive foray into consumer finance and low administrative charges. MCB is well placed geographically and financially. Its return on assets at March 31 2008 stood at 5.69% – one of the highest rates in the world – and its solid financial performance continued this year, with profit after tax rising to PRs4.1 billion in the first quarter of 2008, up more than 10%. MCB’s financials have hardly been ruffled by the challenging global environment. "Pakistan is very non-correlated to the US economy – rather, it is strongly connected to the Gulf region, which is driving the investment in Pakistan stocks," says a Hong Kong-based investment banker. "Moreover, Pakistan has one of the best and strongest banking sectors in the world, with MCB the strongest bank in the country. They’re a class act." MCB has been further boosted by the sale of a 15% stake to Maybank of Malaysia this year for $680 million. Maybank’s acquisition, at 5.1 times book, shows how highly MCB is valued – Maybank has the right to boost its stake to 20% by May 2009. The Pakistan bank said the alliance enabled Maybank to join forces with a lender with a strong consumer and Islamic banking franchise.