Arab African International Bank reports net profit of USD 156MM
Tamer Waheed, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, commented, “Our change in vision and strategy, supported by the efforts of 3000+ AAIBians since early 2023, is undoubtedly translating into tangibly changing results. We not only doubled our local currency customer deposits to exceed EGP 280bn, up from EGP 130bn, and uplifting our FCY customer deposits by more than "50%" in less than 18 months, but simultaneously, we steadily doubled AAIB's net income generation momentum. A materially increased momentum, despite AAIB ‘s comparably limited uplift from a significant local currency risk-free rate hike during that period, giving AAIB FCY Capital Base.”
Waheed continued: “Furthermore, as we recognize that the globally higher interest rate environment, despite its positive impact on the banking sectors reported net interest income, has also its toll on the inherent risk of bank’s assets books, we remained committed to responsibly and consciously elevating our ECL to reach USD 73MM, a “2.4%“cost of risk as we continue to monitor market developments after a recent 800bps interest rate hike and corresponding FX movements. In parallel, we remain committed to prudently monitoring and managing all our institutional risk metrics and strongly drive forward our sustainability, responsible banking, and financial inclusion agenda.”
“As such, we concluded H1 2024 with a bottom-line of USD 156MM, returning AAIB comfortably back into the double-digit zone of return on equity.” Waheed added.
Finally, AAIB stands optimistic amid a much-enhanced macro-economic outlook post Q1, 2024, bold monetary policy moves that unquestionably eased a serious economic outlook mounting since 2020; hence, AAIB remains confident to continue delivering a strong set of results during 2024 yet still cautiously monitors the interplay of macro-economic developments, expected global monetary easing, capital market responses, and last but not least, much impactful geopolitical developments.