Chairman of QIIB’s Board of Directors, Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani; Chief Executive Officer, QIIB, Dr. Abdulbasit Ahmed Al Shaibei and other officials during the QIIB's Annual General Assembly held, yesterday.
Doha: Chairman of QIIB’s Board of Directors, Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, has said that QIIB has been able to maintain a strong financial position and stable growth and build various investment partnerships overseas, based on its distinguished reputation and the pioneering reputation of Qatar’s economy. He was addressing the shareholders during the QIIB’s Annual General Assembly (AGM) held virtually, yesterday.
He said that the year 2021 emphasised Qatar’s strong economy, which remained stable amidst all the difficulties and changes encountered by all the countries.
“With God’s blessing and the wise strategy adopted by the government and the supervisory authorities to support Qatar’s economy in various fields, and under the directives and patronage of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar was able to overcome all the factors and circumstances, in particular, the ongoing current crises due to the spread of COVID-19, as it continued to grant soft loans to those affected by the crisis or postpone the payment of installments,” he said.
“This contributed to the stability of the national economy and the protection of companies, national institutions, industrialists and investors from possible repercussions on their activities and investments. This will continue until the end of March 2022,” he added.
Qatar’s economy has continued to make great leaps in achieving self-sufficiency in most of the production and service sectors, he said.
“At QIIB, we are proud to achieve great growth that reflects our involvement in Qatar’s economy, which was proved by experience based on solid foundations of strength and durability,” he added.
The Bank’s policy remained focused on the local market, especially in light of the availability of great opportunities that contribute to the development process and the fulfilment of Qatar National Vision 2030 objectives,” he said.
“A part of these objectives is already being realised, while the other is still underway. We are honoured to be part in this mission and an active contributor to achieving some of this vision’s objectives,” he added.
“We are also working on seizing the best opportunities to achieve profits for the bank. We have continued to work diligently with the executive management to accomplish our goals. We have also worked closely with the various economic sectors in the State, and we are focused on diversifying our investment and financing portfolios as much as possible to allocate potential risks,” he said.
He added that this has greatly underpinned QIIB’s position as a leading bank capable of maintaining a steady stable growth and achieve best returns for its shareholders and the best services and benefits for its customers.
He said that QIIB has also achieved significant indicators, wherein, international credit rating agencies have strongly recognised the bank’s financial position. Moody’s and Fitch have affirmed the bank’s rating at ‘A2’ and ‘A’ respectively with a stable outlook. This is due to the bank’s high-quality assets and strong profitability indicators compared to its local peers.
The bank has maintained good management of operational efficiency with a high quality investment portfolio and even as it decreased the ratio of non-performing financing to total financing.
In 2021, as in the previous years, the Qatari-banking sector was full of activity and competition. “We participated in financing many projects such as some infrastructure and major projects, as well as financing SMEs. We are satisfied with our achievements in this field as it is an essential part of our activity,” he added.
“QIIB was able to maintain a strong financial position and stable growth and build various investment partnerships overseas, based on its distinguished reputation and the pioneering reputation of Qatar’s economy,” he said.
He added that QIIB’s financial results for the financial year ending on December 31, 2021 indicate that in the last two years we were able to maintain the stability of our financial indicators and profitability while overcoming the negative factors in the market, especially the repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic.
Chairman of QIIB’s Board of Directors, Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani during the QIIB's Annual General Assembly.
He said that QIIB developed an integrated strategy to confront new developments and unexpected risks. The plan focused on enhancing the bank’s operational performance and benefiting from the opportunities offered by the Qatari economy, and coordinating effectively with the various business sectors in order to adapt with any emergency events.
“We have succeeded largely in this strategy, as QIIB indicators continued to stabilise, whereas some were showing growth, despite the conditions, and most importantly, we have enhanced operational efficiency,” he added.
The Board of Directors believes that the banking market, despite the emerging and unexpected factors, faced immense competition at all levels.
He said that in particular, the development of banking services to cope with the new requirements created by the current conditions, such as updating the bank’s technological infrastructure and relying on modern means in banking transactions including alternative channels, which have witnessed a significant increase in the number of users.
This digital transformation has brought about a real leap in the services that customers can now obtain through various digital channels.
“We say with certainty that there is still a lot of work to be done in the field of digital transformation in future, which serves as a significant incentive for us to update our strategy, improve performance, increase innovation, and provide the best to our customers, whether retail or corporate,” he added.
QIIB’s 2021 financial results affirm that the bank is making progress while benefiting from Qatar’s strong economy which is achieving the best outcomes in all sectors. He said that within the framework of its ongoing pursuit for improvement, QIIB relied on strategic planning to keep pace with local, regional and international changes to reach its aspired outcome. In its policies, the Bank encourages Qatari competencies to engage in the banking field and provides all the necessary incentives for them.
“Driven by its regard to fulfilling the requirements of the regulatory and supervisory bodies, QIIB has reviewed all its policies and procedures to comply with the laws, legislation and regulations, in particular good governance and management in accordance with the requirements of the Qatar Central Bank and Qatar Financial Markets Regulatory Authority,” he added.
He said that the latest of which, is the amendment of its articles of association to conform with the amendments of the Commercial Companies Law and to comply with QFMA requirements.
The AGM approved the Board of Director’s recommendations to distribute 37.5 percent of the bank capital as cash dividends, equivalent to QR 0.375 per share. The AGM also approved Board of Director’s recommendation to issue Sukuk qualified as Tier 2 capital up to $1bn. The AGM also approved Board of Director’s recommendation to extend last year General Assembly approval of the $2bn Sukuk program, and delegate the bank board of directors’ to decide the size of each issuance, terms and conditions, issuance currency after getting all necessary approvals from supervisory authorities; and the Sukuk should not exceed the bank’s capital and reserves.
Addressing the shareholders, Chief Executive Officer, QIIB, Dr. Abdulbasit Ahmed Al Shaibei said “If we want to put a title that summarises what QIIB has achieved during the fiscal year 2021, then it will be one of ‘A year of excellence and achievement’,” he said.
“In 2021, our Bank achieved many of the interim goals we have set in front of us, went ahead in achieving our strategy, consolidated our financial position, strengthened various indicators, and achieved a net profit of QR1,003mn (QR1bn), a growth rate of 7 percent compared to 2020. The earnings per share amounted to QR0.59 in 2021,” he added.
He said that “We continued to improve our operational efficiency (cost to return) during the year 2021, by decreasing it further to 18.8 percent, which is one of the best in the banking sector, both locally and at the international level. This shows a very high level of competence in managing expenses and revenue, controlling expenditure, while simultaneously maintaining a steady growth curve in all the bank’s key financial indicators.”
“At QIIB, we have always considered the local market’s ability to seize opportunities and address variables, to be a key factor in the nation’s ability to overcome the crisis, while achieving better growth rates and improving overall performance.”
He said that 2021 was a very active year for QIIB, as the bank provided the best products and services to its corporate and individual customers. Perhaps, the greatest achievement the bank made during the year was finding the right solutions to digitally provide most of our banking products and services, including mobile financing and Internet banking.
“Internet banking, in particular, was very well received by clients and it helped the bank complete financing transactions in record time," he added.
“We have achieved great success in digital transformation; our operational efficiency has greatly improved, as we continued to control and lower our operational expenses, while still maintaining optimal scores in our key indicators. Our customer base has expanded, and the level of customer satisfaction towards our products and services has increased, especially due to our swift response to queries and exceptionally prompt services,” he added.
He said that the bank continued to serve the Qatari community throughout the year by supporting numerous activities and events, contributing 2.5 percent of its profits to its athletic, cultural, social and charitable events’ support fund.
