Abu Dhabi banks top profit list

Two Abu Dhabi banks - Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (Nbad) - have sped away in 2001 results, each announcing net profit of more than Dh600 million. The gap with their nearest competitor is almost Dh80 million.

ADCB has come top declaring a net profit of Dh615 million for 2001, up by one per cent from Dh611 million in the previous year.

Next on the list is Nbad which posted a profit of Dh608 million, up from Dh513 million in 2000. The 19 per cent increase lifted the bank to second position from third the previous year.

The results of the 11 national banks declared so far show a 9 per cent rise over the levels posted in 2000 - underlining the continued profitability and lending weight to the proponents of opening up the banking sector to more competition.

Total 2001 net profit of the 11 banks have risen to Dh3,355 million against Dh3,076 million posted the previous year. The range of growth has been from one per cent to as high as 37 per cent, according to statistics compiled by KPMG's Financial Sector Update.

Though banks have been complaining of lean times and lower profitability from corporate customers, the net income continues to be on an upward trend. Several bankers last year said in the prevalent low interest regime, there is a noticeable shift towards non-interest, fee-based income.

There was one exception - National Bank of Sharjah - whose profit dipped by 16 per cent from Dh91 million in 2000 to a still significant Dh76 million.

The highest profit growth of 37 per cent was recorded by National Bank of Fujairah, which saw its profits rise from Dh51 million in 2000 to Dh70 million for last year.

In terms of net profit ranking of results announced so far, Emirates Bank came in third with a net of Dh529 million, up by 1 per cent from Dh524 million the previous year.