Qatar banking industry witnessed about 15% year-on-year growth in provisions to QR15.41bn in December last year; even as collective impairments were on the decline, according to the Qatar central bank data.
The provisions towards collective impairment witnessed 12.77% decline year-on-year to QR1.23bn, which constituted about 8% of the total provisions in December 2017.
Similarly, other provisions also recorded 38.55% plunge to QR1.02bn, which constituted about 7% of the total.
However, the provisions towards specific loans/finance witnessed 32.93% expansion year-on-year to QR9.85bn, which constituted about 64% of the total.
The provisions towards interest/income in suspense grew more than 11% year-on-year to QR2.3bn, which constituted about 15% of the total.
Within the liabilities side, Qatar’s banking sector also saw 13.23% increase year-on-year in customers’ deposits to QR823.03bn, mainly on account of more-than-doubled public sector deposits.
Of the QR823.03 customers’ deposits, as much as 83% or QR685.91bn came from inside Qatar and the remaining 17% or QR137.13bn from overseas. The domestic deposits largely consisted of personal QR166.18bn, services QR291.85bn, government QR97.1bn, industry QR28.36bn and trading QR45.7bn. Non-banking finance companies’ deposits reported more than 25% fall to QR34.87bn, which constituted more than 4% of the total deposits in the banking system during the review period.
The public sector deposits more than doubled to QR323.36bn, which accounted for more than 39% of the total deposits; while the private sector deposits declined 4% year-on-year to QR464.81bn, which constituted more than 56% of the total.
The debt securities/sukuk amounted to QR48.07bn in December 2017, which was more than 8% lower than that in the previous year period.
The banking sector saw QR36.66bn being raised through bonds, which was down 6% year-on-year. It accounted for more than 76% of the total.
Sukuk or Islamic debts saw about 1% fall year-on-year to QR9.26bn, which accounted for more than 19% of the total.
The banking sector saw QR34.35bn due to central bank, which was largely on account of placement and repurchase options or Repo.
The due to banks amounted to QR214.31bn in December 2017 with placements totaling QR64.5bn, borrowings/finance QR51.82bn and Repo QR27.7bn. Under the head office and branches, there was QR66.92bn liabilities.
The capital account liabilities amounted to QR142.7bn, of which QR57.48bn was legal reserve; QR37.93bn paid up capital; QR29.85bn retained earnings; and QR16.56bn risk reserve. The other liabilities stood at QR57.68bn, comprising deferred interest/income of QR15.85bn and net profit of QR19.7 for the period.