Pubali Bank poised to embrace cutting-edge technology

Pubali Bank gives utmost priority to embrace the latest technology in the banking industry to meet the super digital banking demands from the Gen-Z populations in the coming decades.

Adoption of such digital transformation of the bank's services will not only strengthen its footprint further in the country's banking landscape but also enable the commercial lender to provide better customer experience in days to come when artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, big-data analytics, paperless banking, digital currencies and blockchain technology are expected to be dominating the banking services.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of one of the country's oldest banks Mohammad Ali said these while sharing the commercial lending entity's current and future plan of actions in an exclusive interview with The Financial Express (FE) recently.

He said the entire world has witnessed a revolutionary change in digital transformation over the last 29 years since the launch of Windows 95 that was never seen in the history of the world. "Now think about what will happen in the next 29 years. So, we need to be prepared to take on the challenge," he said.

The experienced banker said the bank now pays serious attention to customer experience because the tech-savvy population has already experienced AI through ChatGPT in this rapidly evolving digital era.

He said the latest technologies like AI, data mining, big-data analytics, paperless banking, digital currencies and blockchain dominate banking operations globally. "The commercial banks here also need to adopt these and we're working on it," he said.

Giving an example of the bank's asset growth over the years, the bank's top executive having sound knowledge about information technology said the asset size of the bank was just over Tk 100 billion in 15 years ago. Now the bank's assets expand by Tk 150 billion annually to reach around Tk 1.0 trillion.

The CEO who will take the bank's responsibility after 15 years will probably say its asset size grows Tk 1.0 trillion a year. "And I don't believe the existing technology will be able to absorb the pressure. We're just making a platform for future CEOs to address the future banking challenges and all the compliant banks will give such attention to this area," he said.

But the comparatively weaker banks will have to give full attention to the recovery of their non-performing assets and it will ultimately create more distance with their stronger peers, the managing director-cum-CEO of Pubali Bank said.

Because stronger banks will reach a technological milestone while under-performing banks would miss the opportunity due to their higher attention on recovery, the seasoned banker said.

The bank has become successful in controlling the burden of non-performing loans (NPLs) thanks to its unique policy of robustly assessing the personal lives of borrowers apart from their business turnover before approving loans.

This pre-loan approval measure worked well as the conventional bank managed to keep its NPLs ratio below 3 per cent, one of the lowest in the banking industry where the average ratio of classified loans is over 20 per cent.

Alongside its own corporate governance, the bank's top executive said, the lender also pays serious attention to the borrowing entity's performance in this parameter. Simultaneously, the bank also analyses the personal lives of clients.

"This is because if a borrower's personal life is not stable, there is a risk that the loan will become non-performing. If we see the client is highly involved in politics or with the culture of clubbing and partying, we generally discourage them from taking loans," he explained.

Regarding strongest parts of the bank, he said corporate governance, high networks, support services, technological advancement and trust and confidence of their customers over the bank's services are the major strengths of the commercial lenders.

"No one can say that Pubali Bank fails to clear any payment obligation locally and globally even during and post mass-uprising and it helps bolster confidence of our corresponding banks," Mr. Ali said.

Although the industry's deposit growth has been hovering between 7.0 per cent and 8.0 per cent, Pubali Bank maintains a robust growth of around 24 per cent, taking the deposit portfolio to Tk 745 billion in 2024 from 2023 deposit base of Tk 602 billion.

In terms of export, the bank experienced a significant growth in 2024, with export transactions amounting to Tk 318 billion, up by 61.87 per cent from the previous year's exports of Tk 197 billion.

In 2024, the bank facilitated imports worth Tk 441 billion, which was 49.16 per cent higher from the previous calendar year's figure of Tk 295 billion.

Regarding loans and advances, the commercial bank invested Tk 622 billion in 2024, a rise of 13.48 per cent from Tk 554 billion registered in 2023.

Such remarkable performances helped the bank bag 12 per cent growth in net profit amid sluggish macroeconomic situation. The bank earned a net profit of Tk 7.62 billion in 2024 from Tk 6.81 billion recorded in 2023.

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