NBP May Close Down Paris Branch After 47 Years

The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is likely to close down its Paris branch after 47 years.

NBP has been operating its branch in Paris since 1975 and NBP Paris has a limited number of Pakistani accounts.

Source told ProPakistani that NBP Paris has communicated to the Pakistani mission in Paris that the branch would be closed soon due to financial losses.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked the Ministry of Defence Production to furnish a response on the closure of accounts as the Procurement Wing of the mission has accounts in this branch.

Sources said that NBP Paris maintains accounts of the defence procurement wing, as well as a small number of accounts of Pakistanis living in France and recently, some accounts of mission, have been transferred to a local French bank.

Earlier, NBP advised the mission’s defence procurement wing to shift their accounts to NBP Frankfurt instead of a local French bank, due to their sensitive nature. The mission has an opinion that although there would be some teething problems and delays initially, the system would smooth out over time however they have sought approval from the parent department for further necessary action.

Sources said that NBP Paris does not offer any modern banking services and is not even used to send remittances to Pakistan.

It was also informed that the government had taken back the decision to close the Paris branch in 2018 and an argument in favour of NBP Paris remaining open is that it is the only Pakistani bank in France and once closed, it would be extremely difficult to open it again.

The global footprint of Pakistani banks has been reducing for the past three years because of various challenges, including tough regulatory conditions, competition, and alternate ways of services through technology.

Local banks, with their falling income from the foreign markets, are considering shutting down their operations while shifting to digital solutions for serving overseas Pakistanis in different countries.



Get Alerts

Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


ProPakistani Community

Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



>