Foreign interest in Pakistani banks is driven by strong business prospects given thus far financial penetration ratio has been considerably low and there exists large potential untapped retail market as well as high profitability with return on equity close to 25%.
As public scrutiny of bank merger and acquisition activity escalated, advocacy groups increasingly used the public comment process to protest bank applications on CRA grounds. In instances of highly contested applications, the Federal Reserve Board and other agencies held public meetings to allow the public and the applicants to comment on the lending records of the banks in question.