RAKBANK achieved a net profit of AED 334.6 million for the quarter ended 31^st March 2014.

Total assets stood at AED 31.5 billion growing 11.3% year on year. Asset growth year to date has been 4.6% which is attributed to a rise in the investments portfolio of AED 862 million and gross loans and advances by AED 680 million.

Gross loans and advances stood at AED 23.0 billion, up 12.3% year on year. Gross Islamic financing assets increased by AED 465 million compared to 31 December 2013. Customer deposits grew by AED 447 million to AED 23.5 billion compared to 31 December 2013. The growth was mainly in Sharia compliant deposits which grew by AED 342 million.

At AED 334.6 million net profit dropped by AED 33 million over the same period last year, however improved by AED 41 million over the 2013 fourth quarter results, reflecting better operating income, lower impairment charges and lower cost over the last quarter of 2014.

Net interest income plus net profit from Islamic financing grew by 7.4% compared to 31^st March 2013 to AED 639.2 million mainly due to a reduction in the cost of deposits as the Bank focused on accumulating low cost transaction accounts and Income from Islamic financing which increased by AED 22.2 million to AED 22.8 million in line with its growing Islamic finance portfolio that commenced operations in 2013.

Total operating income increased by AED 72.3 million to AED 824.7 million, an increase of 10% compared to 31^st March 2013. This growth was mainly due to an increase of AED 44.3 million in net interest income and income from Islamic financing and AED 28.0 million in non-interest income, which went up by 17.8% from the same period last year.

Operating costs increased by 11% to AED 359.8 million compared to the same period last year mainly due to increases in employment costs. However, it dropped compared to fourth quarter 2013 operating cost of AED 364.7 million.

The total impairment charge for the quarter stood at AED 130.3 million compared to AED 61.4 million at the end of the same quarter last year, however reduced by AED 27.2 million from the fourth quarter 2013. Non-performing loans were steady at 2.4% of the loan portfolio and the annualized net credit losses to average loans and advances closed at 2.3%.

“Our first quarter performance is in line with the message we have been sending to markets,” explained Peter England, RAKBANK Chief Executive Officer. “The focus for 2014 is to strongly grow the Bank’s top line to help buffer a level of net credit losses which is more representative of the on-going position for a loan book like ours after 2 years of abnormally low credit losses. We expect to see solid increases in top line performance over the next 3 quarters as the full impact of our loan pipeline starts to come through. We are seeing good solid growth in almost all of our lines of business and have managed to slow down the level of attrition through re-financing on our National loan portfolio,” said England.

During the first quarter of 2014, RAKBANK launched AMAL Home Finance solutions,  Ijarah, to join AMAL’s growing portfolio of Islamic banking products which includes Debit and Credit Cards,  Savings and Current accounts, and Personal, Auto and Business Finance.

The Bank’s capital adequacy ratio as per Basel II requirement at the end of the quarter is 27.6% comprising entirely of Tier 1 capital. This is against a current minimum total capital ratio of 12% prescribed by the Central Bank in the UAE. At the end of the quarter, the regulatory liquid assets ratio was 18.9% and advances to stable resources ratio was 91%. Total shareholder’s equity totaled AED 6 billion including current quarter profit.

The Bank is currently rated by following leading rating agencies. The following ratings have remained unchanged during the quarter.

About RAKBANK

RAKBANK, also known as the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah, is a leading retail and small to medium business bank in the UAE, serving over 700,000 customers. Founded in 1976, the Bank is one of the country’s oldest local financial institutions and today one of its fastest growing and most dynamic banks. According to The Banker's Top 100 Bank Rankings for 2013, RAKBANK is the 1^st in the Arab World by Return on Assets and 5^th in the Arab World by Return on Capital.

RAKBANK offers a wide range of personal and business banking services, as well as Islamic Banking solutions via RAKBANK AMAL, throughout its 34 branches, and its Telephone, Online, and Mobile banking channels. A prominent player in small to medium enterprise finance and a leading provider of credit cards, the Bank received the title of ‘Bank of the Year’ in 2012 by Arabian Business Achievement Awards.

For more information, please visit www.rakbank.ae or contact the Call Centre on +9714 213 0000. Alternatively, you can connect with RAKBANK via twitter.com/rakbanklive and facebook.com/rakbank.

For media queries, kindly contact Lamis Daoud on +9714 291 5064 or via lamis.daoud@rakbank.ae.