DOHA: Qatar Islamic Bank’s (QIB) net profit attributable to the Shareholders of the Bank amounted to QR685.2m for the three months’ period ended March 2019, representing a growth of 9.6 percent over the same period in 2018.
Total Assets of the Bank has increased by 2.3 percent compared to March 2018 and 1.4 percent compared to December 2018 and now stands at QR155.3bn driven by the continued growth in the financing and investing activities.
Financing activities have now reached QR106.3bn having grown by 1.6 percent compared to March 2018 and 4 percent compared to December 2018. Customer Deposits of the Bank now stand at QR107.8bn registering a strong growth of 7.1 percent compared to December 2018 and 5.3 percent compared to March 2018.
Total Income for the first quarter QR1.84bn registering a 13 percent growth compared to QR1.63bn for the same period in 2018. Income from financing and investing activities has registered a strong growth by 16.3 percent to reach QR1.67bn compared to QR1.44bn for the same period in 2018, reflecting a healthy growth in the Bank’s core operating activities. Total expenses of QR267.1m for the three months’ period are 8.1 percent lower than QR290.7m from a year ago. Strict cost controls supporting higher operating revenues enabled further enhancement of efficiency, bringing down the cost to income ratio to 23.2 percent for the first quarter of 2019 as compared to 26.5 percent for the first quarter of 2018.
QIB was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing financing assets to total financing assets at 1.2 percent reflecting the quality of the Bank’s financing assets portfolio and its effective risk management framework. QIB continues to pursue the conservative impairment provisioning policy with the coverage ratio for non-performing financing assets at 100 percent as of March 2019.
Total Shareholders’ Equity of the bank has reached QR14.9bn. Total Capital adequacy of the Bank under Basel III guidelines is 18.7 percent as of March 2019, higher than the minimum regulatory requirements prescribed by Qatar Central Bank and Basel Committee.
In March 2019, Fitch Ratings affirmed Qatar Islamic Bank at ‘A’, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) affirmed the bank’s credit rating at ‘A-’. In January 2019, Moody’s Investors Service, (“Moody’s”) has affirmed Long term deposit ratings to QIB at “A1”. Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI) has affirmed the bank’s Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of ‘A’.
In light of the Bank’s performance and continuous innovation, QIB is being recognized by reputable international and local institutions as one of the leading regional Banks. In the first quarter of 2019, QIB received the “Best Retail Mobile Banking Experience in Qatar” award from the Asset Magazine, the Bank has been recognized as one of the best Investor Relations websites among all listed Companies from Qatar Exchange Investor Relations (IR) Awards and got the “Social Responsibility Award for Best Financial Institution in 2018 from Dar Al Sharq publishing.
In 2018, QIB has received more than 20 Awards, including the “Best Financial Institution in the Middle East and Qatar,” “Best Consumer Digital Bank in Qatar” and “Safest Islamic Bank in Qatar” from Global Finance and the “Best Islamic Bank in Qatar” Award from The Banker, part of the Financial Times Group. These awards recognize the significant progress QIB has made in establishing itself as a leading banking institution in the Middle East while cementing its leadership position in Qatar, its home market.
Source from: The Peninsula