AMMAN: Arab Bank Group, Jordan’s largest lender, posted net profit to $217.2 million of first quarter on Wednesday, helped by a rise in loans and customer deposits.
The bank, one of the Middle East’s major financial institutions with a $46.4 billion balance sheet, said in a statement loans and customer deposits grew by 6.3 and 4.4 percent respectively on the same period in 2014. Outstanding loans stood at $23.7 billion at the end of March.The bank, which posted a 15 percent rise in 2014 net profit to $577 million, said its diversified portfolio helped to offset the impact of foreign exchange falls.
Arab Bank, present in 30 countries in five continents, owns 40 percent of Saudi Arabia’s Arab National Bank ANB. Chairman Sabih al-Masri said first-quarter results reflected “the bank’s commitment to maintain the quality of its loan portfolio and to strengthen its capital position”.
