The announcement by Ithmaar Bank Chairman His Royal Highness Prince Amr Mohammed Al Faisal follows the review and approval, by the Bank’s Board of Directors, of the Bank’s consolidated financial results for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2011.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to report that Ithmaar Bank, together with its subsidiaries and associates, is firmly on the path to recovery and continues the expansion of its core business activities,” said HRH Prince Amr. “This includes the inauguration of three new Ithmaar Bank branches in Bahrain during the period under review,” he said.
“I am particularly pleased to report that, despite the challenging market conditions of 2011, Ithmaar Bank significantly increased its deposits, by 14.7 percent, from $1.2 billion as at 31 December 2010, to $1.4 billion as at 30 September 2011,” said HRH Prince Amr. “New business, and new financing products, led to significant growth of 7.9 percent, from $2.5 billion as at 31 December 2010, to $2.7 billion as at 30 September 2011,” he said.
“In the same period, Ithmaar reduced its investment portfolio by successfully exiting certain investments,” said Prince Amr. “The resultant liquidity generated was applied to reduce the interbank financing, as the core retail and corporate deposit base continued to improve the Bank’s overall liquidity. The overall balance sheet increased by around one percent to $6.8 billion and shareholders’ equity continues to remain strong at $644 million,” he said.
“The bank made impairment provisions totalling $43.7 million and this continues to reflect the prudent approach to impairment provisions on financings and investments,” said Prince Amr. “In parallel, the Bank has aggressively pursued and made recoveries against provisioned assets and, as a result, was able to write-back impairment provisions of $66.3 million,” he said.
Ithmaar Bank Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board, Mohammed Bucheerei, said the Bank remained resolutely committed to expanding and continuously developing its core banking operations.
“Overall income from core banking activities has increased during 2011; income from unrestricted investment accounts has increased by around 15 percent to $50.3 million as compared to corresponding period in previous year. Income from financings and investments has increased by around 99 percent to $103.6 million, after adjusting for one-off realized gains amounting to $44.1 million on sale of two investments during the corresponding period in previous year. The increase in overall operating costs is in line with the net increase in the number of branches of Faysal Bank to 255 from 143 during the comparative nine month period, though the increase in operating costs is below the budget as achieved through effective cost control measures. Ithmaar Bank had, throughout 2011, further demonstrated its long-term commitment to the Kingdom by inaugurating three full-service branches, one in the historic Bab Al Bahrain commercial area, one in Sanad, a growing residential area south of the Capital and, most recently, one in Budaiya, a popular residential area in the North,” said Bucheerei. “The three new branches bring the total number of full-service branches in Ithmaar’s fast growing retail banking network to 14 and the number of Automated Teller Machines to 34,” he said.
“As a leading Islamic retail bank, we recognise the important role we must play in contributing towards Bahrain’s continuous development, in line with Vision 2030 under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa,” said Bucheerei. “This is a commitment we take very, very seriously and, because of the pioneering role we played in the introduction and subsequent development of Islamic banking and finance in the region is particularly important to us,” he said.