Qatar National Bank net profit falls 7% as provisions climb

DUBAI: Qatar National Bank (QNB) , the biggest lender in the Gulf, said on Sunday its first quarter net profit fell by 7 percent from a year earlier to 3.3 billion riyals ($906 million) as it booked 1.4 billion riyals in “precautionary” loan loss provisions.
The bank’s total assets grew by 8 percent from a year earlier to 1.042 trillion riyals at the end of March, the bank said in a statement. That growth was mainly due to a 2 percent increase in loans advances to 721 billion riyals.