KARACHI, July 9: Bankers told Finance Minister Naveed Qamar on Wednesday that they didn’t want intervention by the Competition Commission of Pakistan in banking affairs.

In a meeting participated by eleven major banks, leading bankers discussed a number of issues, including readjustment of lower and upper locks introduced in the stock market with the minister.

After amendment in stocks trading, a share price can fall to only one per cent but it can go up to 10 per cent. This huge gap provides a chance to the speculators to earn more money and borrow more from the banks, which may put the banks in trouble.

Bankers said though no decision was taken in this regard, banks were cautioned against the possibility of risky borrowing by the speculators.

Some bankers said that lower lock could be increased to 2.5 to 5 per cent in the coming days, but the meeting did not conclude anything on this issue.

“We are facing difficulty in recovery as our employees, who go for recovery, are beaten by the borrowers. We discussed to frame a code of conduct to stop this bad practice,” said Aftab Manzoor, chairman of Pakistan Banks Association and president of Allied Bank Limited.

He said small recoveries were the real problem as the cases are delayed for a very long period. He said that the minister was told that main problem was in recovery of the consumer financing.

The meeting also discussed the impact of exchange rate on economy, which was shaken by the rupee depreciation against the dollar.

Banks showed their dismay over the intervention of the competition commission and asked the minister to solve this problem.

“We told the minister that the State Bank was the sole regulator of all banks and if the CCP wants to know something, it should come through the State Bank of Pakistan,” said Aftab Manzoor.

He said the minister agreed to take up this issue and resolve it.