Dubai, January 23, 2017:  His Excellency Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Doha Bank, announced that the Board of Directors (BOD) in its meeting held on 22nd of January, 2017 has approved the draft of the Bank’s audited financial statements for the year ended 2016. His Excellency added that the net profit of the Bank for the year 2016 is QR 1,054 million as compared with QR 1,354 million in the year 2015. At the same meeting, the BOD has decided to present a recommendation to the General Assembly to approve the distribution of cash dividends of QR 3 per share to the shareholders. Following are the board resolutions:

• Approved the draft of the audited financial statements of the year 2016.
• To submit a recommendation to the Ordinary General Assembly to distribute cash dividends to the shareholders for QR 3 per share.
• To call the Ordinary and Extra Ordinary General Assembly of the Shareholders for a meeting on the 6th of March 2017, and in the event the quorum is not met, a second meeting will be held on the 13th of March 2017.
• Approved the Agenda of the Ordinary and Extra Ordinary General Assembly Meeting of the shareholders.

Furthermore, His Excellency said that the Bank has achieved noticeable growth rates in many financial indicators. The total assets rose by QR. 7,076 million from QR 83.3 billion in 2015 to QR 90.4 billion in 2016 i.e. a growth rate of 8.5 per cent. Loans & advances rose from QR 55.6 billion in 2015 to QR 59.2 billion in 2016 i.e. a growth rate of 6.5 per cent. The customer’s deposits grew by 5.6 per cent, where the total deposits increased from QR 52.8 billion in 2015 to QR 55.7 billion in 2016.  The total shareholders’ equity reached to QR 13.4 billion by year end by an increase of 1.5 per cent compared to last year.
H.E. Sheikh Fahad also declared that as of December 31, 2016 the earnings per share was QR 3.23 and the return on average shareholders’ equity was 12.1 per cent and the return on average assets was 1.21 per cent. 

H.E. Sheikh Fahad added that the audited financial statements, declared net profit and proposed cash dividends percentage are subject to the approval of the concerned regulatory authorities and the General Assembly of the Shareholders. He also said that the Board of Directors and the Executive Management will work together to achieve greater results and achieve the objectives that are outlined in the Bank’s strategy for the coming five years. 

Dr. R. Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank, said “Despite the challenging market conditions, Doha Bank’s strong performance throws light on its superior products and services, ongoing customer demand, capitalizing on market synergies. Also, Ordinary General Assembly of Shareholders unanimously agreed 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 inaugurated its 13th representative office in Bangladesh during Q4 2016. It is important to note that, Doha Bank inaugurated its relocated Kochi Branch at Lulu Mall in the presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala and senior government functionaries, 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 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. 

As one of the largest individual ticket deals across the local banking sector, Doha Bank concluded re-financing of Tornado Tower in West Bay. As a step to improve customer convenience, Doha Bank undertook multiple initiatives such as - opening its dedicated ‘Card Delivery Centre’ at City Centre, relocation of its City Center branch to the ground floor within the same Mall, inaugurating a state of the art branch at Al Gharafa. Earlier during the year, 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. As a first in Qatar, Doha Bank also launched ‘Biometric Access’ for mobile banking application. In testament to the same, Doha Bank won the ‘Best Mobile Banking application’ from the Banker Middle East and ‘Product of the Year in Middle East 2016 for Doha Bank’s Mobile Banking Experience’ from ‘The Asian Banker’. During the year, Doha Bank also offered various limited period offers such as ‘Double your Salary’, ‘e-statement registration’, ‘0 per cent payment plans’, ‘free cabin bag’ and ‘complementary gift vouchers’ in coordination with popular merchants. Doha Bank also demonstrated its leadership by organizing a one of its kind camp for Qatari small and medium enterprise businesses in Qatar. Earlier during the year, Doha Bank received PCI-DSS Level 1 certification from SISA preceded by upgrading its card processing system in order to provide faster system performance as well as better safety through ‘credit card fraud guard module’. 

Doha Bank became the first bank in Qatar to achieve accredited certification for ISO 9001:2015. Earlier during the year, Doha Bank signed a MoU with Qatar Finance Business Academy (QFBA) to implement Kafa’a Competency Framework to develop the skills of its employees. In testament to the commitment 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 various knowledge sharing sessions and International Offices meet in India (Mumbai & Kochi), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Japan and Qatar, including the recent ‘Evolving Digital Ecosystem and its Business Impact’ conference in Qatar, which were all well attended by business leaders and dignitaries. 

It is also important to note that Doha Bank was awarded the ‘Best Regional Commercial Bank’ at the Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2016 for the fourth consecutive year. Recently, Doha Bank was honored with ‘Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance – 2016’ by the Institute of Directors, ‘Best Savings Account’ & ‘Best Co-branded Credit Card’ from The Banker Middle East as well 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. Earlier during the year, Doha Bank organized its annual ECO-Schools Programme, hosted Tree planting event in Dukhan as well as the 11th edition of ‘Al Dana Green Run’ in January 2016 wherein as many as 5000 residents had taken part in the 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.