Syed Ali Raza (born March 1950) is a Pakistani banker who served as the president of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) from July 2000 until January 2011. Before joining NBP, he spent a large part of his career with Bank of America and left the position of senior vice president and regional head for the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, to join NBP. and he was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan in 2006.
Early life and education
Raza is the younger son of the Pakistani bureaucrat and diplomat Syed Hashim Raza, an Indian Civil Service officer who opted for Pakistan at independence and went on to serve as the first administrator of Karachi and briefly as acting Governor of East Pakistan. His elder brother, Syed Salim Raza, served as the 15th Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan from 2009 to 2010. The Raza family traces its origins to Mashhad in Iran and is descended from the Nawabs of Pariyawan.
During his tenure, Raza restructured the bank's workforce and branch network, eliminated more than 3,000 jobs and closed some 250 branches. He continued on the bank's board as chairman until 7 March 2012, when the Government of Pakistan accepted his resignation.
Trials, arrest, and pardon
In September 2017, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Raza in Karachi after the Sindh High Court cancelled his pre-arrest bail in a corruption reference concerning the alleged misappropriation of roughly Rs. 18 billion (US$185 million) at NBP's Dhaka branch between 2003 and 2012. NAB alleged that Raza and sixteen co-accused, several of them Bangladeshi nationals, had misused their authority to grant and revise financing facilities at the branch, causing substantial losses to the national exchequer. In proceedings before an accountability court in 2020, a NAB prosecutor told the court that Raza had initially been named as an accused in a related reference but was subsequently granted a pardon and made an approver.
Awards and recognition
Raza was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, one of Pakistan's civilian honours, by the President of Pakistan in March 2006.