According to the Bank’s website, the proposed project is a 50:50 unfunded Risk Sharing Facility (“RSF”) on an aggregate portfolio of up to US$80 million in equivalent Pakistani Rupees (“PKR”) (including up to US$40 million in equivalent PKR for IFC’s own account) with Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited (“HMBL”), an existing IFC client, to support HMBL’s ambition to enhance on-lending to SMEs across Pakistan. The total proposed tenor is up to 6 years, consisting of a 3-year ramp-up, and a clean-up period of 3 years starting after the ramp-up period.                                                  

The E&S risk of the proposed investment is considered medium, and the Project is categorized as FI-2 according to IFC's Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability. 

The Project is an unfunded Risk Sharing Facility (RSF) for Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited (HMBL or Bank) in Pakistan. Historically, the Bank has focused mostly on working capital and trade finance with the intent to further expand its SME financing. Within the SME segment, a large portion of its exposure is in short-term wholesale and trade finance. The Bank has limited exposure to companies operating in high-risk environmental and social (E&S) sectors such as power generation, transmission, telecom, hospitality, and large-scale construction. The IFC RSF will be used exclusively for supporting SMEs in agriculture, followed by textiles, machinery, small scale chemicals and services. Most of these sectors pose low to medium E&S risks and potential impacts.

This is an RSF for up to US$80 million in local currency (including IFC’s own account of up to US$40 million). The project is part of IFC’s Small Loan Guarantee Program (“SLGP”) which provides risk sharing instruments to client banks looking to expand SME lending in difficult markets.  SLGP is supported by the IDA18 IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window’s Blended Finance Facility (PSW-BFF), which was created by the World Bank Group to catalyze private sector investment in IDA countries, with a focus on fragile and conflict-affected states.

Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited (HMBL) was incorporated in Pakistan in August 1992 as a public limited company and commenced its banking operations from October 1992. Its shares are listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. It is a 51% owned subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich (“HBZ”), an international banking group established in Switzerland in 1967 with a presence in 10 countries across 4 continents. Other than HBZ, no other shareholder owns 5% or above. As of June 2025, HBZ had an asset base of US$14.6 billion, deposits of US$10.9 billion and an equity base of over US$1.7 billion.

Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited
Syed Jahanzaib Haider Zaidi
Unit Head – Non-Bank FIs & Multilateral Relationships
+92 21 32644532, Ext: 4532
jahanzaib.haider@habibmetro.com
3rd Floor, Spencers Building, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi, Pakistan.
www.habibmetro.com

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