Spurt in investments and continued growth in credit facilities have scaled up Qatar Development Bank's (QDB) total assets to nearly QR12bn in 2019, QCB has said in a report.

In view of the continued thrust on development of SMEs, loans provided by QDB during 2019 recorded a healthy 7% growth, Qatar Central Bank said in its latest Financial Stability Report.

According to QCB, QDB pursued its role as developmental financial institution with the primary aim to facilitate diversification of the Qatari economy through development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Fully owned by the Government, QDB aims to make Qatari SMEs globally competitive through financing, developing skills and capabilities, promoting exports, and providing opportunities domestically and globally. It also facilitates the real estate development and provides housing loans to citizens.

“Thrust towards diversification of the economy was reflected in the continued healthy growth of the balance sheet of QDB,” Qatar Central Bank noted.

The total assets of QDB increased from QR11bn in 2018 to QR11.9bn by the end of 2019.

“The increase in total assets during 2019 was due to spurt in investment and continued growth in credit facilities. In view of the continued thrust on development of SMEs, loans provided by QDB during 2019 recorded a healthy 7% growth,” QCB said.

The capitalisation of QDB remained strong. The growth in capital and reserves of QDB accelerated during 2019 as compared to the previous year.

Slightly faster growth in assets led to marginal moderation of the ratio of capital to assets but it remained high at 87%. The quality of the capital of QDB also remained high as the share of paid up capital in the total capital and reserves hovered around 95%.

“Thus, QDB did not have to depend on banks for funding their activities as in the previous three years. Very high level of capital in QDB underscores the resilience and potential for expansion of QDB,” the banking regulator said.

“Failure rates among start-ups are relatively higher than those among bigger companies. However, QDB has been prudent as well as supportive to maintain delinquency at low levels and recorded improvement in the quality of its loan assets during the year. The higher investments in government securities also led to increase in the share of the liquid assets in total assets,” QCB said.



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