Housing Bank ups pretax profit by 20.1% during first quarter of 2016

AMMAN — Pretax profit generated by the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (HBTF) during the first quarter of 2016 increased by 20.1 per cent to JD50.5 million from JD42.1 million posted the same period of 2015.

An HBTF statement revealed Sunday that profit after tax in the January-March period of 2016 stood at JD34.6 million, 10.2 per cent higher than the JD31.4 million registered in the first three months of 2015.

HBTF Director General Ihab Saadi underlined the bank's financial strength and soundness indicating in the statement that assets at the end of March 2016, totalled JD7.7 billion and that customers' deposits amounted to JD5.7 billion.

The portfolio of credit facilities reached JD3.9 billion, he said, and shareholders equity amounted to JD1.1 billion.

The results reflected positively on HBTF's main performance indicators which showed that return on assets after tax rose from 1.6 to 1.8 per cent, and return  on shareholders equity after tax increased from 12 to 13.2 per cent, the statement said.

Capital adequacy ratio stood at 16.8 per cent, higher than the 12 per cent minimum required by the Central Bank of Jordan. The liquidity ratio came in at 144 per cent.