MCB Bank
MCB Bank, one of Pakistan’s oldest financial names, has travelled a rather circuitous path to become a corporate banking mainstay. It was founded in 1947 as a private-sector institution, then nationalized in 1974 and privatized in 1991. Shoaib Mumtaz, who was appointed chief executive at the end of 2021, has been with the bank since he joined a year after its privatization.
The bank went global in 2006 when it was the first bank from Pakistan to have its Global Depositary Receipts listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 2008, MCB signed a strategic partnership with Malaysia’s Maybank, which owns an 18.8% stake in MCB through its international trust unit.
By 2017, Fullerton Financial Holdings, owned by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, entered the picture, acquiring a 5.5% stake in MCB through Bugis Investments (Mauritius). MCB was also the first in Pakistan to incorporate a wholly owned Islamic banking subsidiary, MCB Islamic Bank, paving the way for it to become an influential player in the Shariah-compliant finance sector.
Today,