National Bank of Pakistan is one of the largest commercial bank operating in Pakistan. It has redefined its role and has moved from a public sector organization into a modern commercial bank. The Bank's services are available to individuals, corporate entities and government. While it continues to act as trustee of public funds and as the agent to the State Bank of Pakistan (in places where SBP does not have presence). It has diversified its business portfolio and is today a major lead player in the debt equity market, corporate investment banking, retail and consumer banking, agricultural financing, treasury services and is showing growing interest in promoting and developing the country's small and medium enterprises and at the same time fulfilling its social responsibilities, as a corporate citizen.
In today's competitive business environment, NBP needed to redefine its role and shed the public sector bank image, for a modern commercial bank. It has offloaded 23.2 percent share in the stock market, and while it has not been completely privatized like the other three public sector banks, partial privatization has taken place. It is now listed on the Karachi/Islamabad/Lahore Stock Exchanges.
National Bank of Pakistan is today a progressive, efficient, and customer focused institution. It has developed a wide range of consumer products, to enhance business and cater to the different segments of society. Some schemes have been specifically designed for the low to middle income segments of the population. These include NBP Advance Salary, NBP Saiban, NBP Kisan Dost, NBP Cash n Gold.
The bank has implemented special credit schemes like small finance for agriculture, business and industries, administrator to Qarz-e-Hasna loans to students, self employment scheme for unemployed persons, public transport scheme. The Bank has expanded its range of products and services to include Shariah Compliant Islamic Banking products. For the promotion of literature, NBP recently initiated the Annual Awards for Excellence in Literature. NBP will confer annual awards to the best books in Urdu and in all prominent regional languages published during the defined period. Patronage from NBP would help creative work in the field of literature. The Bank is also the largest sponsor of sports in Pakistan. It has provided generously to philanthropic causes whenever the need arose.
The bank has taken various measures to facilitate overseas Pakistanis to send their remittances in a convenient and efficient manner. In 2002 the Bank signed an agreement with Western Union for expanding the base for documented remittances. More recently it has started Electronic Home Remittances Project. This project introduces technology based system to handle inward remittances efficiently, by ensuring that the Bank's branches keep a track of the remittance received from abroad till its final receipt. Bank has been signing different agreements with other leading players in the remittance field for ensuring that remittance services are available to most of the overseas Pakistanis.
A number of initiatives have been taken, in terms of institutional restructuring, changes in the field structure, in policies and procedures, in internal control systems with special emphasis on corporate governance, adoption of Capital Adequacy Standards under Basel II framework, in the up-gradation of the IT infrastructure and developing the human resources.
National Bank of Pakistan has built an extensive branch network of 1400+ branches in Pakistan and operates in major business centre abroad. The domestic branch network has been automated and is online. The Bank has representative offices in Beijing, Tashkent, Chicago and Toronto. It has agency arrangements with more than 3000 correspondent banks worldwide. Its subsidiaries are Taurus Securities Ltd, NBP Exchange Company Ltd, NBP Capital Ltd, NBP Modaraba Management Company Ltd, and CJSC Bank, Almaty, Kazakhstan. It has recently opened a subsidiary in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.