Ghazanfar Azzam
President & Chief Executive Officer
Ghazanfar is one of the leading bankers in Pakistan with many achievements to his credit in commercial, consumer, retail, SME and micro banking segments which include establishment and successful operations of two leading nation-wide microfinance banks in Pakistan i.e. FINCA in 2008 and MOBILINK BANK in 2012. Mobilink Bank, backed by VEON, a global technology co., is a hybrid model combining MSME with mobile digital & agent based banking offering loans, savings, remittances, utility bill collection, mobile wallets, insurance, G2P & B2P payments through an alliance with Pakistan's largest telecom operator Jazz under the brand name JazzCash. The bank now operates with a network of over a 100 branches & over 166,000 branch-less banking agents across the country. JazzCash is playing a leading role in digitizing payments in Pakistan. Under his leadership Mobilink Bank won two consecutive BANK THE UNBANKED in 2018 and 2019 in Pakistan Banking Awards jointly administered by the Institute of Bankers Pakistan, AF Ferguson and DAWN media group under supervision of State Bank of Pakistan.Before moving to microfinance, Ghazanfar also worked with Shore Bank International (Now Enclude) as a senior consultant and Head of SME down scaling USAID funded WHAM project 2005-7. He has extensive global exposure and have been to Indonesia, Cambodia, Turkey, Italy, Romania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, United States, Bolivia, Morocco, UAE, Oman and the United Kingdom on work related trips, conferences & exposure visits. He has also attended a course in International Finance at the World Bank Institute in Washington, DC. In March 2001.Ghazanfar started his banking career with HBL, Pakistan's largest commercial bank, and moved on to work with some of the best private sector commercial banks i.e. Union Bank, Prime Commercial Bank & Bank Alfalah. He is a graduate of Karachi University and did his master’s in business administration (MBA) from IBA, Punjab University, Lahore.