The announcement, by Ithmaar Bank Chairman His Royal Highness Prince Amr Mohamed Al Faisal, followed the review and approval, by the Board of Directors, of the Bank’s consolidated financial results for 2011.
“On behalf of the Ithmaar Bank Board of Directors, I am pleased to report that, despite challenging global market conditions and unprecedented local and regional political turmoil, Ithmaar reported total income of $451 million in 2011, an increase of around 3 percent over its 2010 total income of $438.4 million,” said HRH Prince Amr. “The Bank’s 2011 financial results show a loss of $61.9 million in 2011, marking a recovery of around 56 percent as compared with a loss of $140 million in 2010.
“The Bank continued to take prudent impairment provisions and simultaneously pursued aggressive recoveries resulting in provision write backs,” said HRH Prince Amr. “These results represent a significant recovery in 2011 led by the Bank’s core business which continues to improve, as demonstrated by the increased total income, a direct result of the retail branch expansion, new business, new products and new services, that were introduced in 2011 and full year impact of certain business acquired in 2010,” he said.
“The Bank’s 2011 financial results show an increase in total income as well as growth in both deposits (customer current and unrestricted investment accounts) and financings,” said Ithmaar Bank Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board Mohammed Bucheerei. “These achievements, which come despite the challenges arising from the Eurozone crisis as well as the local and wider regional political turmoil, are consistent with the board-approved strategy and indicate that Ithmaar is clearly on the path to achieving its strategic objectives,” he said.
“During 2011, the Bank continued to take prudent impairment provisions with new provisions totalling $90.9 million, simultaneously the Bank has pursued aggressive approach on recoveries resulting in provision write backs of $69.1,” said Bucheerei. “Total income for the year increased to $451 million from $438.4 million in 2010, this is despite 2010 total income including two one-off gains from investment amounting to $44 million. Overall operating expenses at $212.9 million are under control and have increased mainly due to commissioning of thirty two new Faysal Bank Limited branches in Pakistan and five new Ithmaar Bank branches in Bahrain during 2011 and full year impact of certain business acquired in 2010,” he said.
“The new strategy adopted in 2010 has resulted in shift in balance sheet composition and is now more retail focussed. Though overall balance sheet size has increased marginally by 2.25 percent to $6.9 billion in 2011 from $6.7 billion in 2010, the deposits (unrestricted investment accounts) have increased by 23.5 percent to $1.48 billion in 2011 from $1.19 billion in 2010, and financing which increased 8.65 percent to $2.73 billion in 2011 from $2.51 billion in 2010,” said Bucheerei. “The continued growth in financing also demonstrates Ithmaar’s sound deployment of liquidity,” he said
“These achievements were made possible, in a large part, by the introduction of new retail banking products and services as well as the fast-paced expansion of our retail banking network,” said Bucheerei. “This is part of the board-approved strategy and reflects our unwavering commitment to the Kingdom of Bahrain and to the continuous development of its Islamic financial services industry. It is a long-term commitment and, having played a pioneering role in the establishment of Islamic banking in the Kingdom, we continue to take it very seriously. In fact, 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,” he said.