DOHA: Qatar First Bank, a leading Shari’ah compliant bank based in Qatar and listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), has posted a revenue of QR92.3m for the first quarter of 2018 and recorded a loss of QR28.6m for the period.
Ayman Zaidan, Head of Treasury and Investment Managementsaid: “Despite the challenging macroeconomic landscape that we faced in 2017, first few months of 2018 seems to be showing a positive growth momentum for the banking and financial sector. Given the condition QFB was able to generate revenue of QR92.3million and recorded a loss of QR 28.6 million.
“Our cost rationalization plan that we implemented in 2017, for the purpose of raising efficiency is generating positive results where there is significant reduction in both staff cost and other operating expenses, 28.8 percent and 29.4 percent respectively compared to the same period of 2017.”
QFB has made progress towards its revised strategy where the Bank is undergoing a transformational shift from a proprietary based investment model to having a diversified base of fee-based revenue streams. On the back of this new strategy, QFB has already begun generating fee income by offering client-focused investment products, primarily in real estate and aviation.
QFB total assets slightly decreased by 2.7 percent compared to year end 2017, and closed at QR 4.8bn. The bank’s income from both financing assets and placement with financials institution generated a steady income of QR20.2m and QR6.2m, respectively.
Treasury and Investment front has fuelled an ambitious plan to continue increasing the assets under management through multiple deal by deal transactions. This will be accomplished by the direct sourcing, structuring and placing of these deals.
While the asset and liability management desk continued to offer innovative products and solutions to the Qatari Corporate client base while adhering to prudent liquidity management measures that enables the bank to maintain its cost of funding and generate positive net profit margins.
