Author Information:

Nadeem Hussain was the founder, CEO and President of Tameer Micro Finance Bank, Pakistan’s first private sector microfinance bank and world leader in branchless banking. His efforts towards financial inclusion of the economically marginalized have impacted over 10 million people by extending credit and mobile banking facilities to unbanked Pakistanis. Mr. Hussain’s bank introduced the first stand-alone micro health insurance program in rural areas to protect poor households from falling further below the poverty line and, therefore, has been asked by the SECP to lead its micro-insurance forum Mr. Hussain’s bank is a pioneer in mobile and branchless banking in Pakistan and serves over 4 million people making 7 million transactions per month. Mr. Hussain forged a partnership with an international telecom to provide mobile banking solutions to a large segment of the unbanked Pakistani population. This initiative has become Pakistan’s largest mobile transaction channel in a short span of three years and has been recognized by the World Bank as one of the top three branchless banking solutions in the world. Mr. Hussain champions the causes of financial empowerment, access to healthcare, environmental sustainability, affordable housing and provision of alternate energy to all Pakistanis. He has spent the last 8 years focusing on these areas through his leadership of Tameer Micro Finance Bank and through his involvement with various organizations. Mr. Hussain serves on the advisory board of Institute of Business Administration. He is a Chairperson of the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) and Institute of Capital Markets. He also fulfills his Trustee responsibilities for the Indus Foundation and the Jinnah Institute. Mr. Hussain is an active member of the State Bank’s and SECP consultative groups on various initiatives including Microfinance and insurance. He is also leading the effort to implement Universal Standards of Social Performance Management (USSPM) across all PMN member banks and institutes. Prior to pursuing his passion of making a difference, he worked in international banking for over almost 3 decades with Citigroup in seven different countries and major financial centers of the world. Mr. Hussain’s illustrious banking career included working in corporate banking, consumer banking, risk management, insurance, transaction banking and treasury. He served as General Manager and Head of Consumer Banking for Citibank, Pakistan. Under his guidance, Citibank Pakistan pioneered the concept of consumer banking, with the introduction of credit cards, auto mobile financing and residential mortgage financing. Nadeem effectively turned the bank around after it went into loss due to the freezing of foreign currency accounts in 1998. He also served as board member of the Honk Kong Commodities Exchange. Nadeem has also served as Chairman of the Y2000 Bank Committee and the Overseas Chamber of Commerce and was a member of the Government of Pakistan Investment Advisory Board. Nadeem Hussain is globally recognized for his dedication and service to financial inclusion. He chaired the United Nation’s MDG Session on Financial Inclusion in New York in September 2010, and is a frequent speaker at international forums on branchless banking and Microfinance. He was invited to speak at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Johns Hopkins University in 2012 where Tameer Bank was showcased as Asia’s solution to financial empowerment. He was awarded the Global leader award in 2011 by C5 in Geneva.