Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, Chairman and Managing Director of QIIB said the bank had worked closely with the various economic sectors in the country in the past year and was keen to diversify its investment and financing portfolios in order to disseminate any potential risks, which strengthened the position of QIIB as a leading bank in 2018. QIIB’s strategic market positioning helped the bank maintain stable growth, achieve the best returns for its shareholders, provide the best services and benefits for its clients and maintain a good rating from the international rating agencies, Sheikh Dr Khalid said.
Addressing QIIB’s ordinary general assembly meeting here yesterday, Sheikh Dr Khalid said the bank worked wisely in order to achieve its goals while relying on the support, vision and guidance of the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
2018 was the year of strength for the Qatari economy. QIIB continued to focus on the local market given the significant opportunities provided by local economy, he added. “We consider that our contribution to development plans is a duty, and we will continue to contribute as much as possible through the financing of various projects in all sectors, in particular infrastructure projects as an important driving force in the growth of the national economy,” he said.
Sheikh Dr Khalid said QIIB paid special attention to Qatar’s emerging SME sector during the year 2018, which further enhanced its partnership with Qatar Development Bank. In terms of the bank’s expansion abroad, he said QIIB always seek to seize available opportunities that meet the conditions of economic feasibility, especially in terms of low risks.
During the previous year, the Bank continued to achieve growth in the most important financial indicators such as assets, revenues, net profits, etc. This growth helped the Bank maintain high rankings given to it by international rating agencies during 2018, reflecting the bank’s ability to execute its interim and strategic plans and benefit from the strength of the Qatari economy, which, with the testimony of experts and specialists, has the strongest and best performance in the region and is the most capable of facing market fluctuations and challenges posed by external developments.
QIIB’s 2018 financial results clearly reflect its harmony with the strong Qatari economy. Despite the exceptional circumstances witnessed by Qatar, the figures presented to the shareholders show that QIIB total assets by the end of 2018 amounted to QR50.3bn compared to QR46.6bn from a year ago, with a growth rate of 7.8 percent.
Dr. Abdulbasit Ahmad Al Shaibei, Chief Executive Officer, QIIB, noted the year 2018 was an exceptional year not only for QIIB but for the entire Qatari economy.
“We are proud to be part of our country’s remarkable success, through the implementation of our planned strategic and interim programs. We believed that behind every challenge is an opportunity. The unjust embargo on our country prompted us to search for new markets and new partnerships. We believe that our choices and efforts have borne fruit, and we are counting on more positive results in this area in the future,” Dr Abdulbasit said.
“Our encouraging experience with the inauguration of Umnia Bank in Morocco and its ability in a record time to gain a good reputation encourages us to do more. We now have more than 20 branches in different Moroccan cities and we have an expansion plan in place that will cover all important cities during the coming period,” he added.
He noted the past year witnessed the upgrading of QIIB outlook to “stable” by global credit rating agencies. This is a natural result of the strength of the Qatari economy and its ability to overcome the challenges. “Credit rating companies affirmed that the change in QIIB outlook stems from the strength of the Bank’s financial position, good performance and capacity to maintain the quality of its assets, its solid capital base and high solvency ratio”.
QIIB pursued its local policy and responded to the expansion of its customer base through many ways, such as increasing innovation in services and products, approaching customers and facilitating their access to the banking services to which they aspire. The Bank also implemented an important plan to reengineer its branches and focused on increasing its presence in large commercial centers thus providing integrated banking services to customers for the longest hours possible.
In line with the global trend to enhance technology in the banking sector, the bank invested heavily in the improvement of its technological structures, both in terms of technologies and software and in terms of facilitating customers’ access to its banking services.
In 2018, QIIB made significant strides in the development of its banking services through alternative channels, which increased the number of mobile banking users significantly. As a result of its outstanding performance in 2018, QIIB gained a remarkable recognition for its efforts and achievements at the local and international levels. It also received prestigious awards affirming its leading position and adoption of the best global standards in the banking sector.
The general assembly meeting approved the board of directors’ recommendation to distribute cash dividends of 40 percent of capital i.e. QR4 per share.
Source from: The Peninsula