However, commercial banking made tremendous progress and achieved phenomenal growth since independence as by December 31, 1973 i.e., before nationalization, there were 14 scheduled Pakistani commercial banks with 3,323 branches all over Pakistan and 74 branches in foreign countries. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) played a significant role in the early industrial development of Pakistan from the sixties up to about the mid eighties.
These DFIs were major channels for routing development funds to the private manufacturing sector and achieving socio-economic objectives such as encouragement of new entrepreneurs, setting up of industries in less developed areas and wider diffusion of industrial ownership.