Karachi, March 7, 2011: Last week, a new beginning was witnessed for Consumer Financing in Pakistan. For the first time in the country, a bank has initiated a campaign based on rewarding customers for their good credit history. The campaign, titled “UBL Silah Mila”, aims to acknowledge and reward customers who have shown excellent performance on their loan repayments in Pakistan. Customers who maintain a good credit history in Pakistan on consumer products will enjoy rate breaks and instant rewards upon qualifying for UBL consumer products.

“Whereas previously banks have generally used customers’ credit history only in a negative manner, by looking at defaults with other banks, this campaign is unique in that it looks at good performance as behaviour that is worthy of recognition through discounts on mark-up and other rewards.” commented Mr. Najeeb Agrawalla, Group Head – Marketing at UBL.

When asked about this groundbreaking development in the Consumer Finance industry, Mr Tariq Jan, CEO of DataCheck (Pvt) Ltd, a leading credit bureau, said, “I’m pleased to see how a bank has, for the first time in Pakistan, made use of technology and empirical data to price customers with good credit scores, differently. What UBL has set out to do is reflective of tactics used in mature markets that have proven to be most successful in terms of encouraging responsible behavior amongst customers.”

The campaign also marks an effort to reinvigorate the fledgling consumer industry in Pakistan, by taking it to the next level. The role of private credit bureaus, history of responsible behavior with regulators, and educating customers about responsible credit behavior at grassroots level are some of the highlights of the campaign.