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HBL travellers cheques sales top Rs 52bn

KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL) has held a national prize distribution ceremony to reward the top performing employees, for the bank's premium brand, Muhafiz Rupee Travellers Cheques.

A press release said here Monday that the prestigious ceremony was held in Karachi and was attended by senior executives of the bank, as well as award winners from all over Pakistan.

The ceremony concluded HBL's Muhafiz Sales Competition for the year 1999. Gilgit Zone received the best business award, topping the bank's 49 zones.

Balochistan Region was the top performer in terms of percentage achievement of the target, while Islamabad region achieved the highest sales volume among the bank's nine regions. Launched in June 1998, Muhafiz has become the leading brand name in travellers cheques market in Pakistan, the press release said.

The brand has achieved leadership perception in the market and enjoys highest brand awareness among all products in rupee travellers cheques (RTC) category.

Speaking at the occasion, Umer Fareed, the bank's director marketing shared the results of 1999 with the participants.

Before the launch of Muhafiz in 1999, HBL's annual RTC sales were around Rs 3bn. In 1998 the bank achieved a tremendous growth rate of 507 percent and closed the year with more than Rs 20bn worth of RTC sales.

The success story continued in 1999, as the bank achieved a further 153 percent growth rate to reach the sales figure of Rs 52bn in the year.

Naeem Iqbal, head of HBL's retail banking group, congratulated the whole team for this tremendous performance and distributed the prizes among top performers.-Internews