DUBAI: Mashreq, Dubai’s third-biggest bank by assets, reported a 2.7 percent rise in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, its first increase in seven quarters. The bank said in a statement that net profit increased to AED546 million primarily due to a 15 percent decrease in impairment allowance. It added that net interest income and net income from Islamic products were down by 3.6 percent year-on-year, on the back of flat loan growth. Total assets decreased by 1.7 percent in the year to reach AED120.7 billion while customer deposits declined slightly by to AED76.4 billion
The banks’s non-performing loans to gross loans ratio remained relatively steady at 3.3 percent at the end of March 2017, according to the statement which added that the risk charge for the quarter decreased from AED425 million in Q4 2016 to AED311 million in Q1.
