Qatar’s first Islamic financial institution, Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has ranked the most efficient bank in the Middle East and Africa, emerging first among the largest banks in the Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Ranking in 2021.
The Middle East and Africa (MEA 200) 2021 is an evaluation of the 200 largest commercial banks and financial holding firms in the region.
According to the statement, “The ranking is based on the 2020 cost to income ratio, which stood at 20.1 percent, while QIB has further improved its efficiency with a cost-to-income ratio of 18.1 percent by the end of 2021.”
These efficiency ratios are backed up by QIB’s bank-wide digital transformation initiative, which has resulted in significant increases in sales and revenues as well as operational efficiencies across the bank’s various departments.
Bassel Gamal Group CEO – QIB
“This success is the result of the wide adoption of our digital offerings by our customers and a true testament to our continued efforts in driving innovation and improving our customers’ experience. When we started our business and technological transformation a few years back, we have set a high ambition to ourselves of becoming one of the most customer-centric, efficient Banks in Qatar and the region. We are really proud of this recognition and the fact that we help our customers by making their banking experience faster, simpler, more convenient, and more secure. Banking has changed irrevocably over the last few years and the pivot to digital has been amplified. What we achieved so far is only possible thanks to the collective efforts of all our employees, the continuous support from our Board of Directors, and our clients’ trust and loyalty.”
QIB’s latest results affirmed its position as one of the leading banks in the region. “Its assets increased by 11.2 percent from $47 billion (QAR 174.4 billion) in 2020 to $53 billion (QAR 193.9 billion) in 2021. Customer deposits grew by 11 percent reaching 36 billion (QAR 131.1 billion) compared to $32 billion (QAR 118.1 billion) in 2020,” as per the statement.
Furthermore, the bank was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing financing assets to total financing assets around 1.4 percent, one of the lowest in the banking industry. “It also continued to pursue a conservative impairment policy, with a coverage ratio of the non-performing financing assets reaching 95 percent as of the end of 2021, in line with Qatar Central Bank’s directives,” according to the statement.
