Saudi’s National Commercial Bank profit rises 18.8% on higher operating income

Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank reported net profit of 11.4 billion riyals ($3.04 billion) for 2019 from 9.59 billion riyals in 2018, an increase of 18.8%.

The Shariah-compliant bank said the increase was derived from higher total operating income and lower total operating expenses.

“Total operating income increased by 8.9% mainly due to the increase in net special commission income, investment related income and lower other operating (expense), while fees from banking and services and foreign exchange income decreased,” NCB said in a filing with the Saudi stock exchange on Wednesday (Jan 29).

Total operating expenses at Saudi Arabia’s biggest bank by assets decreased by 4.1%.

Its assets rose by 12.18% to 507.26 billion riyals from 452.18 billion riyals in 2018.

NCB’s financing and investment portfolio grew 6.5% to 282.29 billion riyals from 265.06 billion riyals.

Customer deposits rose by 10.88% to 353.39 billion riyals from 318.7 billion riyals in 2018.

NCB has a subsidiary in Turkey, the participation bank Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi, wholesale branches in Bahrain and Singapore, and offices in South Korea and China.

At home, the NCB Group also owns asset manager NCB Capital.

In December the bank ended merger talks with smaller rival Riyad Bank, without giving any details.

($1 = 3.750 Saudi riyals)

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