Lahore, 16 May: MCB Bank’s Board of Directors is pleased to
announce that Mr. Atif Aslam Bajwa would be taking over from Mr. Aftab
Manzoor, as the President of the Bank.
Mr. Bajwa brings with him 25 years of diverse national and international
experience in Corporate and Consumer banking. Having started his career
in Citibank Pakistan as a corporate banker in 1982, he handled different
relationship and unit head roles in Pakistan before moving to assignments
in New York and Bahrain as senior member of the Corporate Banking and
Corporate Finance Unit for the Gulf Markets. He joined ABN AMRO Bank,
end-1993 and was appointed Country Manager of Pakistan in 1995. In 1998,
he moved to Singapore as the Consumer Banking Head for Asia Pacific
covering operations in 9 countries and spearheaded the acquisition of
new consumer bank operations in 4 markets. He moved to ABN AMRO’s
Head Office in Amsterdam as an EVP end-2000, responsible for Global
Business Development. In mid 2001, he returned to Citibank as the Regional
Head for Central and Eastern Europe. His role covered both corporate
and consumer banking for two years and subsequently evolved to focus
on Consumer Banking for these markets, which also included a mandate
to expand the franchise through acquisitions. In early 2005, he moved
to Dubai with Mashreqbank to manage the Retail and Small Business Group,
which has presence across the Middle East.
The Board of Directors acknowledged that the bank had performed admirably
well over the past seven years led by Mr. Muhammad Aftab Manzoor, the
outgoing President.
Mr. Bajwa brings with him skills in business management, customer relationships,
acquisitions and integration, strategy development and effective execution,
which are expected to prove very valuable, given the bank’s growth
strategy in the coming years. He has also been mandated by the Board
to take measures to further strengthen the Bank’s corporate governance,
modernize its operations, improve efficiency and service quality.
Mr. Bajwa is expected to take up his position as the Bank’s President
with effect from the date the State Bank of Pakistan gives approval
for his appointment. Until such time, Mr. Ali Munir, Senior Executive
Vice President would look after the affairs of the Bank.
