QNB Group's head office in Doha.
Doha: Total assets of QNB Group, the largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, has increased to QR986bn ($271bn) by the end of September 30, 2020, witnessing an increase of 8 percent compared to the corresponding period last year.
The QNB Group’s net profit for the first nine months this financial year ended September 30, 2020 reached QR9.5bn ($2.6bn), which is 15 percent down from the same period last year, which is understandably due to the economic environment as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and restrictive measures.
Due to the current global economic headwinds, QNB Group set aside additional loan loss provisions amounting to QR1.9bn ($520m) to protect the Group from any adverse shocks in the loan book. This affected the overall profitability for the Group. Loans and advances grew by 10 percent to reach QR717bn ($197bn). Strong customer deposits generation helped to increase customer deposits by 8 percent to reach QR715bn ($196bn) from September 30, 2019.
Operating Income increased by 1 percent to reach QR19.2bn ($5.3bn). This reflects QNB Group’s success in maintaining sustainable growth across a number of revenue segments, despite fee related concessions offered to customers located in QNB Group’s key markets affected by the pandemic.
The Group’s drive for operational efficiency is yielding cost-savings and improved revenue has helped QNB Group to materially improve efficiency (cost to income) ratio from 25.7 percent to 24.2 percent, considered one of the best ratios among large financial institutions in the MEA region.
Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio amounted to 2 percent as at September 30, 2020, one of the lowest amongst financial institutions in the MEA region, reflecting the high quality of the Group’s loan book and the effective management of credit risk. QNB Group achieved a coverage ratio of 104 percent, which reflects the conservative approach adopted by the Group towards non-performing loans.
During September, QNB Group successfully completed issuance of $600m first ever green bond issued from Qatar and the largest green bond issuance by a financial institution in the MENA region. Total Equity reached QR94bn ($26bn), up by 1 percent from September 2019. Earnings per share stood at QR0.95 ($0.26).
QNB Group reported robust levels of capital, liquidity and funding measured in terms of CAR achieved at 18.1 percent, LCR at 173 percent and NSFR at 104 percent. All of the required ratios were higher than the regulatory minimum requirements of the Qatar Central Bank and Basel Committee.
QNB Group serves a customer base of approximately 20 million customers supported by 29,000 staff resources operating from 1,100 locations and more than 4,300 ATMs.
