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Qatar National Bank (QNB) Group has reported a net profit of QR10.8 billion for nine months ending September 30, 2018, an increase of 6 percent compared to the same period last year, the bank announced in a statement on Wednesday.
Total assets of the bank increased to QAR853 billion, up by 8% from September 2017.
The key driver of total assets growth was from loans and advances which grew by 4% to reach QAR604 billion. This was mainly funded by customer deposits which increased by 7% to reach QAR615 billion (USD169 billion) from September 2017.
The growth of the Group assets and liabilities has been partly affected by the devaluation in the Turkish lira.
Despite the devaluation impact, QNB's strong asset liability management capabilities helped the Group to improve its loans to deposits ratio to 98.3% as at September 30.
The Group's drive for operational efficiency is yielding cost-savings in addition to sustainable revenue generating sources, enabling the Group to improve the efficiency ratio (cost to income ratio) to 26%, from 29% last year, which is considered one of the best ratios among large financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
Robust credit quality was underpinned by non-performing loans ratio of 1.8%, a level considered one of the lowest amongst financial institutions in the MEA region.
The Group's conservative policy in regard to provisioning resulted in the coverage ratio at 106%. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) amounted to 15.6%, higher than the regulatory minimum requirements of the Qatar Central Bank and Basel Committee.
"Currency headwinds in our core markets had limited impact on the CAR,"QNB said.
QNB's successful funding from the international markets during the year includes capital market issuances of $560 million with a five and 10-year maturity in Australia and $720 million bonds with 30-year maturity in Taiwan.
