High-Balance Account Holders to Pay Monthly Fees at HBL and BOP

In a move aimed at offsetting the financial impact of the new Advance-to-Deposit Ratio (ADR) tax, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and The Bank of Punjab (BOP) have introduced monthly charges for high-balance accounts.

From December 16th, 2022, any account with a checking balance of five billion rupees or more in foreign currency equivalent as of the last day of the month will be subject to a monthly fee of six percent.

A fee of 3% will be charged for foreign currency accounts. BOP will impose a levy of 5% of the account balance, commencing at Rs.3 billion or its equivalent in foreign currency, by the end of the month for conventional savings accounts.

These new fees are part of the banks’ revised charge schedules for the July-December 2024 period. The federal government’s policy to impose a 16% tax on financial institutions that communicate in the absence of their ADR of less than 50% has prompted the recent adjustments, which have led financial institutions to seek alternative ways to compensate for the increased tax burden.

This follows a similar move by Bank Alfalah, which was the first bank to implement a 5% monthly fee on all checking accounts. The impact of the new fee structure on high-value account holders is contingent upon the outcomes of other institutions.