Dubai: Noor Bank on Sunday reported a net operating profit of Dh561 million for the year 2015, up 40 per cent compared to 2014.

The bank attributed increase in profitability to a 73 per cent surge in fee and commission income and a 35 per cent rise in net income from financing.

Bank’s total assets increased 36 per cent to Dh39 billion in 2015 compared to Dh29 billion in 2014. While customer financing grew by 29 per cent during 2015 customer deposits were up 35 per cent to Dh32.1 billion last year.

Noor Bank has been able to enhance its asset quality in 2015 bringing down the impaired financing ratio to 4.7 per cent from 7.3 per cent in 2014, thanks to enhanced risk management capabilities and a conservative provisions position with coverage ratio at over 113 per cent compared to 106 per cent in 2014.

“2015 has been another record year of strong growth and rising profitability for Noor Bank with all of our targeted business segments showing resilience to changing market conditions. Besides being one of the most liquid UAE banks for the fifth year in a row, significant focus on cross sell and diversified revenue base coupled with constant decline in cost of funding has enabled us to consistently deliver superior returns to our shareholders,” said Hussain Al Qemzi, CEO, Noor Bank.

The continue to maintain strong liquidity position with liquid assets ratio at 23.3 per cent and financing to deposit ratio of 72 per cent compared to the UAE banking average of 100 per cent as of year-end 2015.

While the bank’s impaired financing ratio improved to 4.7 per cent with coverage ratio at over 113 per cent return on equity stood at 16.5 per cent along with capital adequacy ratio of 15.2 per cent as of December 31, 2015.

During the year of 2015, the bank also successfully launched its inaugural sukuk issuance diversifying its funding mix and enhancing its deposit maturity profile. Last year Bloomberg ranked Noor Bank as one of the most active Islamic Finance Bookrunners in the EMEA region, closing 17 bookrunner mandates.The bank bookran and lead managed $3.75 billion worth of sukuk issuances.The bank also lead managed more than $9 billion of syndications and structured finance mandates across multiple geographies, during the same year. The bank also ranked among the top ten international Sukuk arrangers for 2015.