Reuters
Amman
Jordan’s Housing Bank for Trade and Finance, the country’s second largest lender, posted a 16.4% increase in first-half net profit to $86.2mn due to better utilisation of funding in core activities, it said in a statement yesterday.
Assets stood at $10.7bn at end of June, up 5% from the end of 2013. The bank’s main shareholder is Qatar National Bank, with a stake of over 35%.
“The results reflect a strategy based on attracting more sources of capital and utilising them more effectively,” said chairman Michel Marto, adding that customer deposits rose 3.6% to $7.5bn compared to the end of last year.
The bank’s credit portfolio stood at $4bn, a 5.2% rise over the same period.
The bank’s total capital adequacy ratio reached 17.6% at the end of June, well above the regulatory standard of 12%, the bank said.
The bank, which is one of the largest foreign banks operating in Syria, said its operations in the country were performing well despite the unrest. It gave no details.