Higher fees, commission lift Adib Q1 profit up 2.2%

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (Adib) on Monday announced a net profit of Dh590.4 million for the first quarter 2018, up 2.2 per cent from the same period in 2017, driven by higher fees and commissions.
Revenues fell 0.7 per cent year-on-year to Dh1.36 billion but the bank's provisions and impairments decreased by 8.8 per cent to Dh149.9 million.
Its customer deposits grew by 1.2 per cent year-on-year to reach Dh102.2 billion at the end of March 31, 2018. Khamis Buharoon, vice-chairman and acting CEO, Adib, said: "We continue to attract new customers to the bank and are now on the brink of crossing the one million customer milestone having added 58,000 over the last year. People increasingly understand the benefits of Islamic banking and we are growing market share in this expanding segment of the financial industry. We have also strengthened our advances to deposits ratio which now sits at 74.4 per cent"
The bank's revenue from fees and commissions increased 2.6 per cent year-on-year to Dh231.3 million. He pointed out that the bank cannot ignore that global economic uncertainties remain, and that there are concerns about the pressures of a rising rate environment on major segments of the UAE economy. "We will, therefore, maintain our conservative approach to balancing the risk and reward of new credit extension." 
The bank's headcount in the UAE was 2,040 at the end of 31 March 2018. - waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com