QIB wins ‘Best Islamic Bank in Qatar’ award

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has been named ‘Best Islamic Bank in Qatar’ by the World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) Performance Awards in a ceremony held recently in Bahrain.
The award, which was received by QIB assistant general manager of Communications & Quality Assurance Mashaal al-Derham, recognises QIB’s continuous growth and impact on the Islamic banking industry.
Earlier this year, QIB recorded a profit of QR1.6bn for the first nine months of 2016, representing a 14% growth over the same period in 2015.
The WIBC Performance Awards are based on the WIBC Leaderboard, a comprehensive performance benchmark framework. Each bank receives an aggregate ranking based on the weighted scores of multiple metrics across three major areas of performance: financial results, financial stability and governance, and social responsibility. All data is collated from the ICD Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Development Indicator and Bankscope.
“We are pleased with this achievement which is another testimonial of QIB’s position as a leading financial institution. The award and our positive results are achieved through the effective support of our board of directors, the hard work of each QIB employee, and of course, thanks to the continuous trust of our valued customers.
“As one of the leading banks in Qatar, we will continue to strive to offer our customers safe, convenient, and tailored services and work hard to be constantly ready to meet all their existing and future financial needs,” said QIB Group CEO Bassel Gamal.
Among other parameters, QIB was chosen as the best performing Islamic bank in Qatar based on its growth in 2016 and its participation in projects supporting the country’s economic development.
As a leading bank in the local retail banking market, QIB has increased its market share in individuals’ financing and deposits through introducing new financial products and services and improving customer service at branches and its digital channels.
“QIB is honoured to be recognised from a well-regarded organisation as WIBC for our on-going efforts to demonstrate quality and consistency in every aspect of our day-to-day service provision,” added Gamal.
The WIBC has established its reputation as the world’s largest and longest running platform for global Islamic banking and finance leaders for over 23 years. After a successful introduction of the first-of-its-kind assessment tool for Islamic banks in 2015, WIBC 2016 enhanced the framework to include additional key performance indicators which reflect the expectations of all banking industry stakeholders.
In April 2016, Fitch Ratings affirmed QIB’s Long Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A+’ with a Stable Outlook, reflecting the bank’s established franchise in Qatar.
This rating demonstrates QIB’s sound asset quality, solid funding, and liquidity profile with a franchise that is more diversified than that of many peers and taking into account the bank’s adequate profitability and satisfactory capital and leverage ratios.
Standard & Poor’s Rating Services also retained QIB’s Counterparty Credit Rating at ‘A-’ and Capital Intelligence reaffirmed QIB’s financial strength rating of ‘A’ with stable outlook.