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Hatton Bank opens Karachi branch

KARACHI: The Pakistan Representative Office of Sri Lanka based Hatton National Bank was opened in Karachi on Monday.

The opening ceremony was performed by Alfred David, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Pakistan and was attended by senior bankers.

In the evening R T Wijetilleke, Managing Director of Hatton National Bank, DHS Jayawardena and M V Thengarajah Members of the Board of Directors hosted a dinner reception at the Pearl Continental Hotel to mark the event. M U de Silva, Senior Deputy General Manager of the bank represented the bank's management. The reception was attended by senior bankers, office bearers of Pakistan Commodity Traders Association and Pakistan-Sri Lanka Business Council, and senior executives from the corporate sector.

Hatton Bank commenced it operations from the hill country town of Hatton in 1888. It was then a private bank. In 1970, it was incorproated as Hatton National Bank Ltd., following the amalgamation of the branches of National & Grindlay's Bank with Hatton Bank. In 1974, the bank acquired the head office and branch network of Mercantile Bank. In 1989, the bank took over the Sri Lanka operations of Emirates Bank International, and in 1996 the operaitons of Banque Indesuez. Today, in terms of the deposit bank, risk assets portfolio and profitability, Hatton is rated as the largest private sector bank in Sri Lanka with a network of 101 branches, 11 extension offices, four mobile banking units and representative offices in India and Pakistan. At the end of 1999, the bank's asset base crossed $ one billion.

A B Shahid, former General Manager, Gulf Commercial Bank Limited, will serve as the bank's chief representative in Pakistan. He brings to the bank a rich blend of national and international banking spread over a 25-year period spent in Pakistan and abroad.