April 30th, 2015
A prestigious launch ceremony of Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loans (PMYBL) was held at Meezan Bank’s Jinnah Super Branch, Islamabad on April 28, 2015. PMYBL is a program of the Government of Pakistan aimed at socio-economic development of the country’s youth.
The program will provide a broad canvas of schemes for enabling youth to get employment opportunities. To cater to this need, Meezan Bank has designed a set of schemes for providing Shariah-compliant financing facilities for Small Entrepreneurs, Micro Enterprises, Agriculture and Public Transport.
The ceremony was attended by Mr. Irfan Siddiqui – President & CEO of Meezan Bank, Mr. Mansoor Khan – M.D Pak Kuwait Investment Co. as well as senior executives of Meezan Bank. Ms. Leila Khan – Chairperson of PMYBL was also present at the ceremony, along with senior government officials. Mr. Irfan Siddiqui gave an overview of the efforts that went into developing a fully Shariah-compliant PMYBL program, as was desired by the Prime Minister. He gave an overview of the four options developed with the joint efforts of Meezan Bank, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and PMYBL.
Ms. Leila Khan congratulated Meezan Bank on the successful development of the program and appreciated the Bank’s efforts for developing a fully Shariah-compliant solution for this ambitious scheme. She assured the Government’s support and cooperation to Meezan Bank and reiterated the Prime Minister’s commitment and focus towards elimination of Riba from the society, especially from the financial sector.
Meezan Bank is the 8th largest bank in Pakistan in terms of branch network and provides a complete range of Islamic banking products and services through a retail banking network of 431 branches in 117 cities, supported by a countrywide network of over 360 ATMs, Visa debit cards, a 24/7 Call Center and internet banking facility.
Meezan Bank has been consistently recognized as the Best Islamic Bank in Pakistan by numerous local and international institutions over the last several years, including Islamic Finance News – Malaysia, Global Finance magazine, New York, Asset AAA – Hong Kong and CFA Association – Pakistan.