Qatar banking sector sees steady growth in Q3

THE growth of aggregated total loans and advances of eight listed commercial banks on the Qatar Stock Exchange from June 2019 to September 2019 was mainly driven by a combination of growth in equity, a PwC Qatar report has said.

Burak Zatiturk, PwC Qatar Financial Services Leader, said, “Powerful forces such as customer expectations, technological capabilities, regulatory requirements, demographics and economics are reshaping the banking industry. In order to win in this era of change, banks must not only execute on today’s imperatives, but also radically innovate and transform themselves for the future. Digital banking will definitely provide options to be fit for the future, and many banks worldwide

are currently building the infrastructure to enable digital banking.”

PwC Qatar’s second Qatar Banking Sector Report finds that over the past three years, Qatar’s banking industry continued to grow at a remarkable pace.

The total loans and advances of the eight listed commercial banks, which include financing assets, grew by 21.41% (CAGR of 6.68%) in Q3 2019 compared to Q3 2016.

Customer deposits, which include equity of (unrestricted) investment account holders and customers’ current accounts of the Islamic Sharia compliant banks, grew by 24.39% (CAGR of 7.55%) between Q3 2016 and Q3 2019.

The aggregated profits of the eight listed banks in Q3 2019 has also continued to grow, increasing by 20.84% from Q3 2016 (CAGR of 6.51%) driven by the increase of the aggregated net income.

PwC’s analysis also shows that the total assets of the eight listed commercial banks, on the Qatar Stock Exchange increased by ≈ QAR 83.6 billion over the first three quarters of 2019 and by QAR 39 billion over the third quarter of 2019 (Q3 vs H1).

Similarly, the total loans and advances of the eight listed banks totalled QAR 1.081 trillion as at 30 September 2019.

The total profit of the eight listed banks on the Qatar Stock Exchange increased by 5.60% compared to Q3 2018. And finally, earnings per share for Q3 2019, witnessed an increase (compared to H1 2019) for most of the listed banks, as disclosed in each of the respective financial statements.

PwC Qatar launched its second Qatar Banking Sector Report on Thursday, which looks at the forces reshaping the country’s banking industry. The report is based on figures released by the eight listed commercial banks on QSE.