Banks lend record Rs1.78tr to agriculture sector

Financial institutions disbursed Rs1.776 trillion under agriculture financing during the previous fiscal year, which was 25 per cent higher year-on-year and was around 97.6pc of the agriculture credit target set by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), data showed on Wednesday. The outstanding portfolio of agriculture credit also grew 10pc to Rs760 billion by the end of June compared to Rs691bn by the end of June 2022. Among the large banks, those with total assets of over Rs1.5tr, the National Bank of Pakistan emerged as the top performer with a score of 77.4, followed by Meezan Bank (52.4), Habib Bank Ltd (48.1), Bank AL Habib (39.8) and United Bank Ltd (38.3). The Bank of Punjab topped the category of mid-size banks — those with assets between Rs500bn and Rs1.5tr — with a score of 60.5, followed by JS Bank (38.4), Faysal Bank (35.8), Askari Bank (35.5) and Standard Chartered (26.9).