Islamic Banking services: U Bank gets commercial licence

U Microfinance Bank (U Bank), Pakistan's fastestgrowing microfinance bank, has received the commercial licence for launching full-scale Islamic Banking services across Pakistan. U Bank commenced its pilot Islamic Banking operations earlier this year, starting with five branches, and later on extended it further across the country to include cities of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, and many more.

After its promising performance, U Bank has now received the license from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to commercially launch its Islamic Banking branches across Pakistan.

Speaking on this remarkable new feat, Kabeer Naqvi, President & CEO - U Microfinance Bank stated, "I am glad to announce that we are now spearheading Islamic Banking in the microfinance ecosystem in Pakistan. This is a landmark achievement for the microfinance industry in general and U Bank in particular.

This step will enable the bank to further the agenda of financial inclusion by catering to the Shariah-based banking needs of the people. There is a huge unmet demand for Shariah-based banking services and U Bank is looking forward to playing a significant role in bridging this gap.

This is just the beginning - with continued support from the SBP, we will be penetrating further into Pakistan, bringing us closer to our ambition of bringing the unbanked population into the banking net and serving all segments of the society."

U Bank Islamic Banking provides a full suite of tailormade, Shariah-compliant financial solutions to its customers. Its product offerings include financing facilities against housing, business, and agricultural needs of up to PKR 3 million, along with Current, Savings, and Term Deposit account services.