// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy did First Women Bank hire a baker? It needed dough.

This article is about the Pakistani bank. For other uses, see First Women Bank (disambiguation).

First Women Bank Ltd. (FWBL) is a privately owned commercial bank. On 15 April 2026, the Bank entered a new era with the successful completion of its privatization, under which the Government of Pakistan transferred its shareholding and management control to EVE Holding RSC Limited, an affiliate of International Holding Company (IHC), of UAE. IHC is one of the region’s leading diversified investment conglomerates with interests across financial services, infrastructure, technology, healthcare, energy, and real estate with sovereign associations. The transaction is regarded as a landmark Government -to- Government privatization, reflecting a strategic partnership between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Reinforcing its financial strength and stability, the Bank’s entity ratings were revised by PACRA on June 24, 2026 to ‘A’ (long term) and A1 ( short term).

First Women Bank

Type	Private
Industry	Banking Capital Markets
Founded	December 2, 1989 (1989-12-02)
Headquarters	Karachi-75530, Pakistan
Key people	Farrukh Iqbal Khan (CEO)
Products	Loans, credit cards, debit cards, savings, consumer banking, and bancassurance
Revenue	Rs. 2.167 billion (US$7.8 million) (2023)
Operating income	Rs. 457.354 million (US$1.6 million) (2023)
Net income	Rs. 322.165 million (US$1.2 million) (2023)
Total assets	Rs. 70.792 billion (US$250 million) (2023)
Total equity	Rs. 3.082 billion (US$11 million) (2023)
Owner	International Holding Company (100%)
Website	fwbl.com.pk
Footnotes Financials as of 31 December 2023

First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) is a Pakistani commercial bank for women with headquarters in Karachi.

History

The blueprint for infrastructure of the Bank was designed by Akram Khatoon. She presented it in 1988 to then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who approved to set up the bank in December 1988. The bank was incorporated with a paid up capital of PKR 100 million which was subscribed by the state-owned banks. Its original charter mandated that the bank would employ women and extend small business loans exclusively to women. he first branch of the bank was opened in Karachi in December 1989, and by 1991, it had 15 branches throughout the country.

The Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) approved transaction structures for the privatization of First Women Bank Ltd.

After a hiatus of several years, in February 2024, the Federal Cabinet of the Government of Pakistan finally approved the privatization of the First Women Bank. On October 16, 2025, Pakistan's federal cabinet approved the sale of its 82.64% stake in First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) to the United Arab Emirates-based International Holding Company (IHC) for $14.6 million (Rs4.1 billion). The transaction, conducted under the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act of 2022, marks the first privatization under this legislation. The deal, valued at Rs5 billion for the bank, allows the buyer to meet the minimum capital requirement of Rs10 billion over five years. FWBL, established in 1989 to promote financial inclusion for women, had a net equity of Rs3.2 billion as of December 2023.

The sale agreement has been signed on October 17, 2025, in the presence of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The IHC, chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, plans to expand FWBL’s 42 branches to 200 in the medium term and is permitted to reduce up to 10% of the workforce immediately, with remaining employees protected from layoffs for at least 18 months.

External links

• Official website