J. Peter Morrow has
stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Khan Bank
after ten eventful years. He will continue to be
associated with the bank as a Director for at least two more years. In an
interview, Morrow has said the last two years have been difficult but Mongolia
has grown rapidly in the past 10 years. He recalled that when he first came, the
Agricultural Bank, which later became Khan Bank, had little work and less money.
“Our first task was to increase business, to start giving loans, bringing in
more deposits, and expanding normal banking activities. The customers were
there but we did not offer the products they wanted to buy,” he said.

Morrow claimed credit for changing the whole economy of herding
from a cash economy to one that deals through the banking system. He regretted
that much of the reporting in the mass media on the bank’s herder loans program
is based on wrong information and is simply not true. He said these loans had contributed
to improvement in herders’ livelihood. And “very few herders have blamed Khan
Bank for anything”.

Morrow said he had always found Mongolia to be “a great place to
live in” and as one married to a Mongolian woman he can call it his second home. He was one of the founders of the Arts Council
in 2002 and still serves as their Vice Chairman. He holds about 1% of the
bank’s shares, most of which are in the hands of Japanese, Americans and
Mongolian and international investors.