KP asks BOK MD to close bank office in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Finance Department has asked the Managing Director (MD) of Bank of Khyber (BOK) to close down its office located in Islamabad and shift the staff to the bank’s headquarters in Peshawar immediately. One month has passed after issuing this official letter from KP’s Finance Department but so far there has been no compliance with the instructions.

On the other hand, the sources in BOK say that the management has prepared a reply to this letter and argued that the Board decided to establish an office in Islamabad a couple of years back to comply with the regulations placed by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and now how the finance department could issue a directive to close it down. Only the Board of the Bank is the competent forum to reverse this decision. However, no official of BOK was ready to say anything on the record.

According to a letter written by KP’s Finance Department to MD BOK titled Closing and Shifting of Second Head Office of Bank of Khyber Islamabad to Peshawar Head Office whereby it stated that the ex-Managing Director, BOK had established a second Head office in Islamabad, Gulberg Green and parked the following Group/Divisions including (1) Digital Banking Group (the digital group consists of many other divisions) (2) Information Technology Group the IT division is parked in Peshawar, Karachi and Islamabad) and (3) Call Center.

It states that it has been observed that more than 80 individuals have already been hired at high salaries while hiring more than 50 individuals are in the pipeline. “The individuals hired are mainly from one bank where mostly these people were either removed or sidelined due to poor performance,” the letter claimed and added almost a sum of Rs100 million has been spent on establishment of Islamabad office in Gulberg Green.

Three floors have been occupied for the purpose. The annual rent of the premises is Rs22 million. Since Bank of Khyber was established for the socio-economic development of people of KP, which provides a very good forum for providing on job experience to KP graduates especially business, ACCA, IT, Commerce etc. hence establishment of a second head office in Islamabad is an unethical decision, since KP jobs are lost to other provinces. BOK is the only financial institution that provides banking head office experience to banking professionals in KP.

Shifting more and more functions of the bank is not serving the purpose of the bank while there are serious administrative issues of managing the double head office. Recently Bank of Khyber has constructed a state-of-the-art Head office in Peshawar.

“As per above Finance Department is of the view that BOK Gulberg Green Islamabad office may be immediately closed and all staff stationed there in Islamabad may also be shifted to the BOK Head office Peshawar having ample space to accommodate these staff and also placing head office functions under one roof that may significantly improve the Bank’s Head Office other functions” the letter categorically stated. Given the above, it is requested that views/comments may be forwarded in the matter to this department to proceed further, the letter concluded.