Dubai, UAE, October 20, 2016:  His Excellency Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Doha Bank, announced Doha Bank's financial results for Q3 2016. The net profit for Q3 2016 is recorded at QAR 1,019 million despite the sharp decline in the oil prices and the challenges in the financial markets across various countries. The bank sustained the core income as the net interest income is up by 2.1 per cent as compared to same period in 2015. H.E. Sheikh Fahad said the Bank’s core revenue streams have shown strong growth over the prior year period reflecting on the Bank’s intrinsic strength towards recurring earning capacity and also on the Bank’s productive operational performance.” 

Total assets increased by QAR 2.1 billion, a growth of 2.6 per cent, from QAR 82.3 billion as at 30 September 2015 to QAR 84.5 billion as at 30 September 2016. Net Loans & Advances increased to QAR 55.6 billion as at 30 September 2016 from QAR 54.4 billion for the same period last year, registering a growth of 2.1 per cent. Deposits stood at QAR 48.6 billion as at 30 September 2016, a decrease of 6.6 per cent from last year same period. 

H.E. Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Managing Director of Doha Bank said “The Bank has become extremely strong over the years with total equity, as at 30 September 2016, at QAR 13.4 billion, registering an increase of 1.5 per cent during the last twelve months. Through the strategic utilisation of the shareholder’s funds by way of increasing our performance levels the return on average shareholders’ equity is 14.8 per cent as at 30 September 2016 one of the best in the industry. The Bank, given the scale of operations, has achieved a very high return on the average assets of 1.62 per cent as at 30 September 2016 which is a clear demonstration of the effective utilization of shareholder’s funds and optimum asset allocation strategies”.  

Dr. R. Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank, said “Doha Bank’s strong results once again highlights the strength of its products and services, ongoing customer demand, capitalizing on market synergies in a challenging and competitive environment. Doha Bank has recently updated its EMTN programme which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. This was preceded by Ordinary General Assembly of Shareholders unanimously agreeing for Doha Bank to issue Certificate of Deposits (CD) program and Commercial Papers (CP) program subject to necessary regulatory and other approvals.”

Doha Bank in line with its international expansion strategy and specific growth focus in India, inaugurated its relocated Kochi Branch at Lulu Mall in the presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala and senior government functionaries from Kerala, senior businessmen from Qatar, HE the Managing Director, Board members of Doha Bank, executive management and the prominent local corporates who have business interest in GCC and across the globe. Doha Bank has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Centrum Group, India to facilitate the development of GCC business for Centrum with its network while Centrum will reciprocate with the same in India for Doha Bank specifically in the areas of Banking, Wealth Management and Forex. Doha Bank established its 13th representative office in Bangladesh and plans to formally inaugurate the same in Q4 2016.

Doha Bank concluded its 7th consecutive Summer Promotion campaign for its credit card holders on the occasions of Ramadan and Eid season, through attractive rewards such as 10 per cent cash back across all Qatar Duty Free (QDF), 5 per cent cash back on all foreign currency transactions. This was also coupled with 3 per cent cashback on all local spend in the month of June, reaffirming its commitment to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Doha Bank became the first Bank in Qatar to launch ‘Biometric Access’ for mobile banking application. In testament to the same, Doha Bank won the ‘Product of the Year in Middle East 2016 for Doha Bank’s Mobile Banking Experience’ from ‘The Asian Banker’ in recognition of the superior service offered through the mobile banking application. Doha Bank also offered various limited period offers such as ‘e-statement registration’, ‘0 per cent payment plans’, ‘free cabin bag’ and ‘complementary gift vouchers’ in coordination with popular merchants.  In confirmation of Doha Bank’s dedication to account information security, Doha Bank recently received PCI-DSS Level 1 certification from SISA. This was preceded by Doha Bank upgrading its card processing system in order to provide faster system performance to ensure a better end-customer and cardholder experience as well as better safety through ‘credit card fraud guard module’, which is able to monitor fraudulent transactions to raise automatic alerts. Doha Bank and Doha Bank Assurance Company also became the first Banking and Insurance organizations respectively in Qatar to obtain the latest ISO 9001:2015 certification.

Recently, Doha Bank signed a MoU with Qatar Finance Business Academy (QFBA) to implement Kafa’a Competency Framework. The agreement makes Doha Bank the first bank in Qatar to sign up for the implementation of Kafa’a - a first-of-its-kind training and competency framework introduced by QFBA for the banking and finance sector in the GCC region - to develop the skills of its employees. In order to create awareness on changing market dynamics as well as to promote the bilateral relationship between GCC, India and various countries in which Doha Bank has its presence, Doha Bank held economic knowledge sharing sessions in India (Kochi), Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar, which were all well attended by business leaders and dignitaries. 

It is also important to note that Doha Bank was awarded as the ‘Best Regional Commercial Bank’ at the Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2016 for the fourth consecutive year during the year. Recently, Doha Bank was named as ‘Qatar Domestic Trade Finance Bank of the Year’ at Asian Banking and Finance Awards 2016. This was preceded by another award for being the best Qatari company for ‘Excellence in Investor Relations’ by Qatar Exchange under the mid-cap category on account of displaying best practice and transparency in investor relations. In testament to Doha Bank’s strong commitment to society, environment and raise awareness of sustainable development issues, Doha Bank organized its annual ECO-Schools Programme, hosted Tree planting event in Dukhan as well as the ‘Al Dana Green Run’. Doha Bank in coordination with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) and Al Wakrah Municipality also hosted a clean-up campaign at the Al Wakrah beach under the theme, “Save the Beaches for the Future”.