Bank AL Habib Business & SME Banking Guide

Bank AL Habib's business banking is organized into Corporate, SME, Trade Services, Cash Management, and Employee Banking, each built for a different scale and type of business need.

Part of PakFinHub's Bank AL Habib coverage — see the full bank overview.

Last Verified: Sep 2, 2026
Corporate & SME
Rs 3.5tn Trade Volume (2025)

Written & reviewed by Dildar Hussain — 10+ years in Pakistani banking, BS Banking & Finance (NUML University)

Bank AL Habib's business banking arm is deliberately broad — it's one of Pakistan's leading trade-finance banks, with a global correspondent-banking network layered on top of standard corporate, SME, and agriculture lending. Below is the full product line the bank doesn't put on a single page itself, pulled together from its Business Banking, Trade Services, Cash Management, and Guarantees pages.

Which Bank AL Habib Business Service Fits Your Business?

The bank's own materials list six business banking categories side by side with no guidance on which applies to you. Here's a practical starting point, using the State Bank of Pakistan's own official enterprise classification — recently revised — rather than marketing labels.

Your Business	Likely Fits	Why
Annual sales turnover up to Rs 30 million (Micro)	SME Banking	Falls in SBP's Micro Enterprise band under its revised SME Prudential Regulations — simplified SME lending procedures apply.
Annual sales turnover above Rs 30m up to Rs 400m (Small)	SME Banking	SBP's Small Enterprise band under the revised definition — still handled by the bank's dedicated SME desks.
Annual sales turnover above Rs 400m up to Rs 2bn (Medium)	SME Banking (upper tier) or Corporate, depending on relationship size	SBP's Medium Enterprise band; some banks route the upper end of this tier to Corporate Banking instead — confirm with your relationship manager.
Annual sales turnover above Rs 2bn, or a large/multinational company	Corporate Banking	Above SBP's SME thresholds — relationship-led working capital and structured finance.
Importing or exporting goods, regardless of size	Trade Services	Letters of Credit, collections, guarantees, and correspondent-bank settlement — a need defined by trade activity, not company size.
High-volume collections or disbursements (utilities, distributors, franchises)	Cash Management	Built for businesses that need collection aggregation or the AL Habib Payments System (AHPS), not just a current account.
Farm, agri-input, or agri-processing business	Agriculture Banking	Dedicated agri-finance products, including Kamyab Khatoon Zarai Finance for women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.
Any business wanting a payroll/staff banking solution for its own employees	Employee Banking (AL Habib at Work)	This is about banking your staff, not your business — usable alongside any of the categories above.

SME thresholds per SBP's revised Prudential Regulations for SME Financing (Regulation SE R-1 / ME R-1), which replaced the prior Rs 150m/Rs 800m turnover bands with Rs 30m (Micro), Rs 30m–Rs 400m (Small), and Rs 400m–Rs 2bn (Medium) — also introducing a Startup classification for enterprises up to 5 years old. Recent press coverage of the revision discusses turnover thresholds only; the employee-count test that historically accompanied the turnover test (e.g. up to 50 employees for SE) may still apply — confirm both criteria with your branch or SBP's published regulation text before assuming eligibility based on turnover alone. The Medium/Corporate boundary in practice is a bank relationship-management decision, not a fixed SBP rule, so check with Bank AL Habib directly if your business sits near that line.

Corporate & SME Banking

Corporate Banking

Relationship-led banking for large corporates: working capital finance for day-to-day operations and liquidity needs, including export financing (SBP schemes) and other structured facilities.

SME Banking

Simplified procedures and reduced turnaround time for lending to small and medium enterprises — which make up roughly 90% of all enterprises in Pakistan and employ about 80% of the non-agricultural labour force. Dedicated staff at every branch handle SME procedures.

Agriculture Banking

Financing products for the agriculture sector, a core input supplier to Pakistan's broader industrial economy — including the Kamyab Khatoon Zarai Finance product for women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.

Financial Institutions

Correspondent banking and institutional relationships supporting the bank's trade-finance and cross-border settlement capabilities.

Sourced from Bank AL Habib's official Business Banking, SME Banking, and Corporate Banking pages (bankalhabib.com).

Credit Facility Processing Fees — By Loan Size

Facility Type	Loan Size	Processing Fee
Corporate Credit	Up to Rs 50m	Rs 11,000
	Rs 50m – 100m	Rs 25,000
	Rs 100m – 250m	Rs 70,000
	Rs 250m – 500m	Rs 80,000
	Above Rs 500m	Rs 100,000
Commercial Credit	Up to Rs 2m	Rs 3,000
	Rs 2m – 5m	Rs 3,500
	Rs 5m – 10m	Rs 5,000
	Rs 10m – 20m	Rs 10,000
	Rs 20m – 50m	Rs 20,000
	Rs 50m – 100m	Rs 30,000
	Above Rs 100m	Rs 50,000
SME	Up to Rs 10m	Rs 5,000
SME	Above Rs 10m	0.05%, max Rs 50,000
Channel Financing	Any size	Rs 5,000 flat

All four tiers charge 18% p.a. on any overdue short-term finance balance, and none charge for facility enhancement, decrease, early one-off transactions, or temporary extensions once the facility is live. SME processing specifically excludes Consumer Banking products, Channel Financing, and Commercial Vehicle Leasing, which are priced separately.

Exact figures from Bank AL Habib's official "Schedule of Bank Charges," effective July 1 – December 31, 2026 (Inst. Cir. #093, dated May 21, 2026) — this is a genuinely useful comparison point against other banks' facility fees, since processing cost scales differently by segment even for similarly-sized loans.

Trade Services

Bank AL Habib has offered trade finance since its 1991 inception and is one of Pakistan's leading trade-finance banks, maintaining a global network of correspondent banks alongside its own overseas branches and representative offices to support domestic, regional, and global trade requirements.

Import Services

Establishment of Import Letters of Credit (inland & foreign), import collections, import contract registration, open-account transactions, and import financing (FTR, FIM, FCIF, and Islamic modes).

Export Services

Export LC advising & confirmation, purchase of export documents (FDBP), pre- and post-shipment financing (FEBP, FAPC, FAFB, FCEF), and processing of contract-basis export bill collections.

Guarantees

Issuance of guarantees — including SBLCs, Performance Bonds, Bid Bonds, and Advance Payment Guarantees — through the bank's correspondent network, against collateral and approved limits (subject to central bank approval where required).

The bank handled Rs 3.5 trillion in foreign trade business in 2025 alone. Sourced from Bank AL Habib's official Trade Services and Guarantees pages, and cross-checked against State Bank of Pakistan trade-finance regulatory guidelines.

Import Letter of Credit — Opening Commission

Annual Committed L/C Volume	1st Quarter	Each Subsequent Quarter
Up to Rs 10 million	0.40%	0.25%
Rs 10m – 100 million	0.35%	0.20%
Above Rs 100 million	0.17%	0.10%

These commission rates are subject to adjustment, pending competent-authority approval, if a customer or group's total L/C business for the year exceeds Rs 200 million. L/C amendment (Rs 1,800 flat if amount/period unchanged), revalidation, and cancellation (Rs 2,500 plus SWIFT charges) are billed separately. Guarantee commission generally runs 0.45% per quarter (minimum Rs 1,800) for standard guarantees, with a lower 0.60% rate applying specifically to Customs-related guarantees.

Exact figures from Bank AL Habib's official Schedule of Bank Charges, effective July 1 – December 31, 2026 — the mid-tier rate (Rs 10m–100m) rose from 0.30% to 0.35% versus the January–June 2026 schedule.

Cash Management

Collection Solutions

For corporates, SMEs, and commercial clients — including collection arrangements via internet banking, mobile apps, and other banks' ATMs, using aggregator services.

Payables & Receivables Management

Streamlines a company's receivables and payables to address liquidity and cash-flow complexities as part of the bank's broader value-added services mandate.

AL Habib Payments System (AHPS)

The corporate digital payments platform for cash management customers — contact the Cash Management Division at +92 21 32270457 / 32270438, or cmd_ahps@bankalhabib.com.

School Banking Solutions

A complete banking solution benefiting schools, students, and teachers — fee collection and related administrative banking bundled together.

Sourced from Bank AL Habib's official Cash Management page.

AL Habib FX Gateway & Employee Banking

AL Habib FX Gateway

A digital platform for businesses to manage foreign exchange transactions directly, reducing dependence on manual branch-based FX processing.

AL Habib at Work (Employee Banking Solution)

A comprehensive banking solution addressing the banking needs of an organization's employees — suitable for small businesses and large corporates alike, covering salary disbursement and staff account benefits.

GEM — Gateway to Equity Market

In-house brokerage access letting business and individual customers, including RDA holders, invest directly in the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

AL Habib Exchange Company

A dedicated currency-exchange subsidiary (alhabibexchange.com) operating alongside the bank's core FX and remittance services.

Sourced from Bank AL Habib's official Business Banking, FX Gateway, and About Us pages.

Where to Check the Exchange Rate

Bank AL Habib doesn't run a single public retail exchange-rate page; live buy/sell rates for USD, GBP, EUR, and other currencies are confirmed at your branch, through AL Habib Exchange Company (alhabibexchange.com), or via AL Habib FX Gateway for business FX management. Rates move throughout the trading day, so a rate quoted in the morning may not hold by afternoon — always confirm at the point of transaction rather than relying on a cached figure.

Who Business Banking Serves

Bank AL Habib's business banking customer base spans individual small merchants through to large corporates, multinational companies, government and semi-government departments, and SMEs — served across Retail Banking, Commercial Banking, Islamic Banking, Asset Management, Currency Exchange, and Retail Brokerage segments of the group.

Sourced from Bank AL Habib's public company profile disclosures.

Ready to explore Bank AL Habib Business & SME Banking Guide?

Verify current rates, terms, and eligibility directly with Bank AL Habib before applying — this page is independent, sourced, and kept current, but the bank's own site is the final word on live terms.

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