FOREIGN BANK IN AFGHANISTAN - 2003-09-17

Standard Chartered, the UK-based bank, and the First MicroFinance Bank of Afghanistan, majority-owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (Akfed), will tomorrow receive licences to set up what will be the first commercial banking operations for a quarter of a century, Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, the central bank's governor, said in an interview.