Sima Kamil becomes 1st woman to lead a major Pakistani bank

Sima Kamil, a veteran banker was today appointed as the President and CEO of the United Bank Limited (UBL), becoming the first woman to lead a major Pakistani bank.
Kamil, who will initially serve as deputy CEO at UBL, is slated to take over the top slot after May 31, when the current CEO Wajahat Hussain leaves the company, Dawn newspaper reported.
The United Bank Limited is one of the big five commercial banks in Pakistan.
Kamil, who moved recently to UBL, had been leading Habib Bank Ltd's (HBL) Branch Banking since 2011 and oversaw a large expansion of HBL's branch network.

She dealt with HBL's retail, consumer, small and medium enterprises, and rural banking initiatives, as well as the bank's wealth management division as head of the HBL Asset Management Company Ltd.
She had previously been associated with the microfinance industry as a director of the First MicroFinance Bank.

She also has experience at international financial institutions, including American Express, a financial services company, and Standard Chartered Bank.
Kamil has a business degree from Kingston University in the UK and an MBA from the City University, London.
According to UBL's website, the bank controls assets of more than Rs 1 trillion. It operates 1,281 branches all over Pakistan, including 22 Islamic banking branches and one branch in Karachi export processing zone, and 18 branches outside Pakistan.