JS Bank Limited is a Pakistani commercial bank and is based in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. JS Bank is a prominent, majority-owned subsidiary of Jahangir Siddiqui Group, with total revenue of around 562 million as of December 2018. JS Bank Limited currently owns 345 branches in 172 cities across the country as well as an International branch in Manama, Bahrain. It was established in 2007 as a result of the merger of two mega corporates (Jahangir Siddiqui Investment Bank Limited and American Express Bank Limited - Pakistan operations.
History
The establishment of JS Bank began with the acquisition of Citicorp Investment Bank Limited by Jahangir Siddiqui & Co. Limited on the 1st of February 1999. This organization was known as Jahangir Siddiqui Investment Bank Limited. JSIBL had a 60% stake in Citicorp giving it ownership of the organization and its operations in Pakistan.
JS Bank-HSBC Pakistan deal
, a British multinational investment bank which was ranked the 7th largest financial institution in the world in 2018, had announced its decision to close its operations in Pakistan at the end of 2012. The organization had been in negotiations with JS Bank with a sale-purchase agreement signed between the two parties. In October 2013, however, the deal failed because both entities had fallen short in fulfilling some preconditions of the agreement. Transparency International Pakistan was the first to question the agreement. They sent a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England to review the contract. A trial was held at the District Court of Berlin, Germany. JS Bank won the primary injunctions against Transparency International but as a result of the discord, the purchase agreement failed to go through. The operations of HSBC Bank ended up being acquired by Meezan Bank, another Islamic financing institution in Pakistan.
JS Bank was accredited by the Green Climate Fund in 2019 and became the first Pakistani financial institution to gain this accreditation. GCF is a global initiative to promote effective response to climate change through the help of ‘Accredited Entities’ around the world.
Milestones
JS Bank has been rapidly growing their networks and recently reached Rs. 400 billion deposit mark. Their goal is to reach the status of one of the largest SMEs banks and mortgage providers in Pakistan.
They have won the Asiamoney Awards 2020 for being ‘Best Bank for SMEs’ and ‘Best Bank for CSR.
JS Bank holds the largest share in disbursement of Rozgar Refinance Scheme amounting to Rs10.8 billion as per State Bank of Pakistan policy.
In September 2019, the State Bank of Pakistan imposed penalties on a number of local institutions including JS Bank for deficiencies in customer due-diligence. The bank’s departments where discrepancies were pointed out included asset quality, corporate governance and AML/KYC. The bank was also advised timelines to enhance its processes for identification of Politically Expose Persons, customer risk profiling and transaction monitoring.
