BANKING

Profit blow for NBK

August 2010

NATIONAL BANK of Kuwait has posted a 22.6 per cent decline in first-quarter net profits, after booking provisions to weather the global financial crisis.

The country’s biggest bank by assets posted net profits of $216.9 million in the first quarter, NBK said in a statement on the bourse website. This compares with $280 million in Q1 of last year. NBK has made a “voluntary decision to make additional general provisions as a precautionary measure against any protracted impact of the global financial crisis on the local economy,” the bank said in a statement.

It did not specify the value of the provisions taken.

NBK has been expanding to offset rising competition at home by buying Al Watany Bank of Egypt and a 40 per cent stake in Istanbul-based Turkish Bank in 2007. It is also active in Qatar through affiliate International Bank of Qatar.

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