Qatar First Bank (QFB), a leading Shari’ah compliant bank based in Qatar, regulated by QFCRA and listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), has announced its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2018, reporting a net loss of QR482m.
QFB’s total income, excluding disposal loss and loss on fair value remeasurement of equity investments, showed a growth momentum with an increase of 24.1 percent at QR222m, as compared to QR178m of previous year.
This was mainly driven by the fee income from the structured products and a reduction of 26 percent in returns to unrestricted investment account holders (the cost of funding) due to the better management of its loan to deposit ratio.
QFB’s management continued to raise its efficiency through the implementation of its cost rationalization plan that resulted in reduction of total expenses of the bank by 10 percent, as compared to the previous year. This was mainly driven by reduction in staff cost by 18 percent and other operating expenses by 16 percent.
Treasury and Investment arm has initiated an ambitious plan to continue increasing the assets under management through multiple deal-by-deal transactions and direct sourcing, structuring and placement of these deals.
The asset and liability management desk continues its offering of innovative products and solutions to the Qatari Corporate client base while adhering to prudent liquidity management measures that enables the Bank to maintain its cost of funding and generate positive net profit margins.
The Bank also reported a disposal loss and loss on fair value remeasurement of equity investments of QR331m during the year, compared to QR119m in the previous year, weighed down by global and regional headwinds resulting in prevailing market uncertainties that affected the performance of the Bank’s Alternative Investments portfolio.
Despite the challenges, the bank looks forward for a positive year. In 2018, the Bank underwent a comprehensive exercise to identify weaknesses and strengths. The exercise revealed the bank’s internal strategic capabilities in the management of key portfolios can bring in positive impact on its future growth.
Source from: The Peninsula