Correspondent Banking
Inspired
by a challenging spirit and an unyielding desire to create a sound and reliable
network of correspondent relationships, Alfalah Bank has placed great emphasis
towards it growth. Accomplishing something for the first time requires a
special focus. It demands foreseeing possibilities. In its endeavor, to do so,
Alfalah Bank successfully surmounted problems and difficulties arising out of
issues relating to weak economic conditions of the economy and a continuous
deteriorating status of country risk.
The
incertitude and skepticism of the international banking community towards
financial institutions from emerging markets remained intact. The Bank’s
persistence during the past four years allowed it to make significant inroads
into the arena of correspondent banking. Large international banks, have agreed
to enter into relationship with Alfalah Bank after critically evaluating it.
During
2002 the bank added 81 banks to its network of correspondents, bringing the
total number to over 170. Of these relationships, there are now several banks
that rank amongst the top financial institutions in the world. The geographical
coverage now extends to over 100 countries, which is adequately compatible with
trade flows.
Bank
Alfalah’s correspondents, during the year extended it unqualified support,
which enabled the Bank to undertake a healthy quantum of foreign trade
business. There are many challenges ahead for the bank, in the coming year, the
bank will not only continue to review its efforts on existing correspondents to
make the relationship more beneficial, but will also add more correspondents to
establish a comprehensive international network to facilitate its customer’s
transaction as well as the Bank’s proprietary needs.
Alfalah
Bank have provided against the list of correspondents their world and country
rankings. These rankings have been taken from The Bankers Almanac – July 2001
issue.
It
should be emphasized that correspondent arrangements do not necessarily imply
the existence of account relationship. The Bank is in the process of
rationalizing its current nostro account relationships, and shall continue to
open new accounts in various currencies based on its trade flows and business
requirements.
Home Remittance
The
Bank’s dedicated teams of professionals are fully engaged to ensure seamless
operational support to its International Correspondent Agents for ensuring fee
free transactions as well as ready access of home remittances to beneficiaries
across its vast branch network; be it for cash over counter, credit to account
with Bank Alfalah or any other RTGS member bank in Pakistan.
Alfalah
Bank is also working diligently to continuously bring on board new remitting partners to register
with PRI and expand its International Correspondent Agents Network and thus
accessibility.
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