Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has posted a first-quarter net profit of QR492mn, up 23% on the same period in 2015.
The bank’s total assets increased 3% in Q1 and reached QR131bn, driven by a continued growth in the financing activities, QIB said.
Financing activities have reached QR91bn in the first quarter, an increase of QR4bn, or 4%, compared to December 2015. Customer deposits now stand at QR89bn, while total shareholders’ equity reached QR13bn.
QIB’s total Income for the three-month period ended in March reached QR1.28bn compared with QR950mn in the same period last year. Income from financing and investing activities reached QR1.1bn compared with QR817mn in the previous-year period.
Net fee and commission income reached QR133mn compared with QR100mn in the first quarter of 2015.
QIB said it was able to further improve the ratio of non-performing financing portfolio to gross financing portfolio to less than 1%, “one of the lowest” in the industry, reflecting the quality of the bank’s financing assets portfolio and its effective risk management framework.
The bank continued to pursue the conservative impairment policy with an improved coverage ratio for non-performing financing portfolio at 112% as of March 2016.
Recently, international ratings agency Capital Intelligence reaffirmed QIB’s financial strength rating of ‘A’ with a stable outlook in view of “very good” asset quality, “strong” capital ratios and “improved” coverage ratio.
Fitch last year upgraded QIB’s long-term IDR to ‘A+’ from the previously held ‘A’ with a stable outlook. Standard & Poor’has retained QIB’s counterparty credit rating at ‘A-’ with a stable outlook.
In light of QIB’s positive performance, the bank was recognised by leading international financial publications.
QIB Group CEO Bassel Gamal was ranked among the first of 100 best-performing CEOs of listed companies in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) states from “TRENDS & INSEAD Business School”.
QIB also won other awards such as ‘Bank of the Year 2015 in Qatar’ by the Banker Magazine, Best Islamic Bank in Qatar’ and for the ‘Best Deal of the Year - Regulatory Capital’ in relation to its QR2bn sukuk deal by the Islamic Finance News (IFN).
Earlier in the year, the bank saw an improvement in its 2016 ranking according to The Banker Top 500 Banking Brands from 321 to 267.
QIB’s total assets increased 3% in Q1 to reach QR131bn, driven by a continued growth in the financing activities
