DOHA: The total assets of Qatar Development Bank (QDB) have increased to QR10.2bn in 2017, from QR9bn recorded a year ago.
As in the previous year, the increase in total assets during 2017 was largely due to growth in credit facilities and increase in placements of its funds with the banks, according to Qatar Central Bank (QCB).
Fully owned by the government, QDB is not profit oriented. It aims to make Qatari SMEs globally competitive through financing, developing skills and capabilities; and promoting exports.
Commenting on QDB’s 2017 performance, the QCB noted in its latest ‘Financial Stability Review’ that QDB continued to contribute to the diversification of the Qatar economy, through facilitation of development of SMEs during the year. With renewed thrust on diversification of the economy and growth of SMEs, the balance sheet of QDB has been recording rapid expansion in the past few years. The momentum of expansion was maintained during 2017.
The capital and reserves of QDB had been increasing rapidly over the past few years. The ratio of capital and reserves to total assets has risen steadily from 69 percent in 2013 to 89 percent in 2016.
During 2017, the growth in capital was almost at par with the healthy growth in assets resulting in the ratio of capital to total assets remaining at 89 percent.
The QCB noted that the capital of QDB is of high quality and has been improving over the years. The share of paid up capital in the total capital and reserves has also secularly increased from 82 percent in 2013 to over 93 percent in 2017.
Thus, QDB did not have to depend on banks for funding their activities and its liabilities to the banks at the end of 2017 was nil, as in the previous year. The QCB noted that the failure rates among start-ups are relatively higher than those among bigger companies.
However, QDB has been prudent to maintain delinquency at low levels. Moreover, very high level of capital in QDB underscores the potential for further expansion and resilience of QDB.
