CEO - FINCA Bank

CV: 

M.Mudassar Aqil is the CEO of FINCA Microfinance Bank Ltd. Since 2011, he has overseen the bank’s rapid growth and its recent acquisition by FINCA which makes the bank a part of one of the largest global network of microfinance institutions spread across 23 countries in 5 continents. Mr. Aqil is a banking industry veteran. Prior to joining FINCA, he worked for 14 years at a leading commercial bank in Pakistan and the United States. He serves as a director on the board of Pakistan Microfinance Network. He holds an MBA from Salisbury University, Maryland.

Blurb:

Today we do have banking facilities for marginalized communities in the country who can stand on a solid footing if we all raise the level of awareness and strive for financial inclusion.

Evolve: How did you find 2014-15 for the Microfinance banking sector and what will be your strategy in 2016?

M.Mudassar Aqil: In the recent years, microfinance market has seen a diverse growth due to a supportive regulator, healthy competition between strong private sector players, continuous growth of inclusive financial services and innovation of business models. Pakistan has ten MFBs currently which are privately owned by local and international investors with a sense of novel ownership and approaches to microfinance banking.

Our strategy for 2016 would be introducing new dimensions such as branchless banking, various technological interventions, and enterprise lending. Our focus would be to serve the largest number of borrowers and delivering the promised deposits and remittance services to our customers. We also intend to focus on agricultural and livestock sector in 2016.

Evolve: How do you gauge emerging economic conditions in terms of opportunities and challenges for the microfinance banking sector? Will this be a tough year for banks?

M.Mudassar Aqil: Opportunities can be determined by observing the significant difference that MFBs have made in reaching the grass root level and their role has been pivotal for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and livelihood creation. Today Pakistan is ranked among the top countries for Microfinance Regulations as per the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of the Economist Magazine.

At this juncture there are a few potential risks and challenges that the MFBs have to address for continued sustainability. High credit risk due to imprudent lending by some microfinance players can affect the market discipline and operational risks can be caused by the lack of systems and controls. MFBs would have to think about providing innovative solutions to serve the most underprivileged segments of the country and offer consumer protection to millions of customers in the market.  

Evolve: There are many underserved urban and rural areas. How your bank is planning to address that void? Will you like to share your 2016 expansion plan? 

M.Mudassar Aqil: Pakistan is a large market and we are actively evaluating new opportunities to enter and grow those segments such as agriculture, livestock and women empowerment. Pakistan is also a robust market for Digital Financial Services. We aim to work on a few innovative ideas in this area and moving forward we strive to continue building and growing by bringing novel payment solutions to the market.

Evolve: We are an agricultural economy yet if you look at farmers, there is hardly any access available for financing. Do you have any plans for agriculture sector?

M. Mudassar Aqil: Yes, agricultural economy is one of the segments we specifically want to focus on. We already have introduced a few products specially keeping the agri-sector in mind like Zarai Karza, Kashtkar Karza and Maal Muweshi Karza which has already made an impact in the communities this previous year by accumulating 21.14% from our total lending portfolio and in the near future we are planning on increasing the number of our prestigious customers we can reach by our mobile banking vans in areas which are still unexplored by the banking sector.

Evolve: Is the local banking system geared up to finance upcoming energy projects like LNG?

M.Mudassar Aqil: Being a microfinance bank, we are currently focusing more on the existing voids in the community which include basic banking services to the majority of people and existing business loan requirements. Our immediate goal is to be successful in reaching out to the maximum number of people possible and if in future there is such a requirement by the community we may focus on energy projects, especially solar, as well. However, currently MFB cannot make a loan greater than Rs. 500,000 which is generally inadequate for the energy projects. 

Evolve: How much have you been investing in technology?

M.Mudassar Aqil: We are continuously striving to improve our technology by focusing on branchless banking in future. There will be important announcements in this regard in 2016.

Evolve: In early 2000s, banks were giving loans heavily. We are again entering in similar market conditions. How do you see the banking sector responding to the situation this time around?

M.Mudassar Aqil: Microfinance banking in Pakistan has a strong tradition of trust and cooperation among the stakeholders which is extremely encouraging. Some of the relatively weak institutions have been bought by experienced international investors and now they are emerging as strong players under the new ownership with strong capital footing. These MFBs have acquired the best human resources ensuring better governance and putting control and compliance mechanisms in place. 

Evolve: How did the bank’s deposits evolve in the outgoing year and what is going to be your strategy going forward?

M. Mudassar Aqil: I am pleased to share with you that FINCA has crossed PKR 6 Billion mark. On the lending side, we have managed to grow our gross loan portfolio to PKR 4.6 Billion. Our profitability is on a solid footing and we remain leader in individual lending within Pakistan’s Microfinance sector. We are thankful for the trust of our 300,000 customers and most importantly to all FINCA family for making these results possible

Evolve: Any message for the readers of EVOLVE?

M. Mudassar Aqil: Thank you for your valuable time for going through this interview and I hope you will reach out to collectively raise a voice of eliminating poverty from Pakistan by encouraging entrepreneurship and spreading the word around.  Today we do have banking facilities for marginalized communities in the country who can stand on a solid footing if we all raise the level of awareness and strive for financial inclusion. Pakistan will develop by being economically strong only when we can reach out to the maximum number of people possible!