U Bank is a a growing microfinance bank in Pakistan providing deposit, lending and domestic remittance services through its UPaisa paymnet service. The microfiance bank is an fully owned subsidary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). PTCL has injected an extra PKR 1 Billion into U Bank recently. The bank will be able to take advantage of growth opportunities in the microfinance sector of Pakistan following this capital injection.
The U Bank will be able to reach new targets and use this capital injection to grow despite the economic outlook, the competition and the potential to reach out to a population that is considerably underserved.
Using disruptive innovation, U Bank will offer its service to both traditional and non-traditional customers and it will also enhance efficiencies by taking a step further into the digital world and bringing in difference customers to its already diversified client base.
In Pakistan, U Bank has almost 630,000 customers of which around 190,000 are women. The deposit portfolio of U Bank, at the end of 2017 had grown to PKR 11.97 billion which is up from PKR 8.1 billion. Along with this, the loan portfolio also increased by almost 50% from PKR 5.5 billion to PKR 10,64 billion. However, there was also an increase in the number of employees which rose to 1253 from 939 with 9% of the workforce being made up of women.
Under Upaisa, U Bank offers branchless banking through a collaboration with Ufone – a service that is available at 45,000 locations throughout Pakistan.
