Mubasher: Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) on Sunday announced that both Moody’s and Fitch confirmed its ratings at ‘A2’ and ‘A’, confirming the bank’s strong financial position.
The ratings also affirm QIIB’s ability to confront challenges and market factors.
Moody’s rating relied on several considerations such as: QIIB’s well-preserved high liquidity levels, strong capital base, and strong client base, according to the bank’s statement to the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE).
Meanwhile, Fitch’s affirmation of QIIB’s viability rating (VR) and its removal of the Rating Watch Negative (RWN) reflect the “immediate risks from the diplomatic crisis to the bank’s overall standalone credit profile has reduced.
“The bank’s funding profile has generally stabilised from the back of outflows of nondomestic funding and the Qatari authorities have continued to provide funding support. In addition, there has not been any material impact on the bank’s performance metrics to date,” Fitch added.
This rating affirms Qatar’s economic strength and that it has the ability to overcome any challenges to maintain the stability of its results, as the bank was able to achieve a growth of 5.1% in the third quarter of 2017, Abdulbasit Ahmad Al-Shaibei, CEO of QIIB, said.
“The various budget figures of the Bank confirm our ability to achieve further growth based on the quality of our finance portfolio on one side, and the important opportunities of the local market on the other," Al Shaibei added.
As for the coming period, QIIB is eyeing more growth opportunities, especially with the ambitious 2018 budget that confirms that the Qatari economy is stronger than all challenges and risks, the CEO affirmed.
