Commenting on the financial results, RAKBANK CEO, Peter England, said: “The trends for the 1^st quarter 2017 are showing positive signs. We had a very strong quarter on fee income as our efforts in building the Wholesale Banking and Treasury franchise are really beginning to bear fruit. Our year on year net Interest Income has been affected by our change of business mix, however the efforts in this area put us in a much better position for net earnings growth over the coming quarters. After peaking in the 3^rd quarter of 2016 provisions have continued to come off in the last 2 quarters and our forward looking indicators give us comfort that this trend should continue during the course of 2017”.

England also commented “Other than the financial performance, the Bank has had tremendous success in a number of key areas. Our new digital banking platform launched in late 2016 has been very well received by our clients who can now enjoy the convenience of a single digital platform across all of their devices. We have seen significant improvement across the board in all our service quality indicators which has been acknowledged by receiving a number of highly recognised industry awards. During the 1^st quarter we also signed agreements with both RAK SME and Dubai SME to work together to continue to support this crucial sector in the UAE economy. As the largest SME bank in the UAE, we remain firmly committed to helping small businesses grow and develop despite challenging conditions in the past 24 months. On the product side we continue to see exceptional traction on our recent product innovations such as our ‘Home in One’ Product which remains to be the only product of its type in UAE market, as well as our recently launched Fawrun deposit product from RAKislamic which has been extremely well received by our clients. The product and service pipeline for this year remains very strong, so expect to see continued product and service innovation from RAKBANK as the year progresses.”

Total income grew 2.6% compared to the last quarter of 2016, though declined 4.4% over the comparable period in 2016. Net interest income declined as the Bank continued to change its business mix of lending, though this was offset to an extent by strong fee income growth particularly from the Bank’s Treasury and Wholesale banking activities. Operating expenses were marginally up year on year, though were marginally down in comparison to the 4^th quarter of 2016 as the Bank continued its focus on cost optimisation. Impairments continued their downward trajectory from the peak in Q3 2016, declining by 4.3% from Q4 2016 though were up 10.7% from the comparable quarter in 2016.

Total Assets rose by 0.8% to AED 42.9 billion compared to the end of 2016. This was due to an increase in Gross Loans and Advances of AED 647.9 million partially offset by decrease in investments of AED 123.0 million and a decrease in lending to banks by AED 112.6 million. Gross Loans and Advances grew by 5.7% year-on-year on the back of a healthy growth in Corporate Loans. Customer deposits grew by 1.3% to AED 29.8 billion compared to the end of 2016. This growth came mainly from an increase of AED 640.6 million in demand deposits partially offset by a decrease of AED 247.4 million in time deposits.

The Bank’s capital adequacy ratio as per UAE Central Bank regulations stood at 22.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2017. This level of capital provides the Bank with ample room for growth in 2017. The regulatory eligible liquid asset ratio at the end of the quarter was 15.5% compared to 16.9% at the end of 2016. The advances to stable resources ratio stood comfortably at 86.7% compared to 85.5% at the end of 2016.

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About RAKBANK             

RAKBANK, also known as The National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (P.S.C), is one of the UAE’s most dynamic financial institutions. Founded in 1976, it underwent a major transformation in 2001 as it rebranded into RAKBANK and shifted its focus from purely corporate to retail and small business banking. In addition to offering a wide range of Personal Banking services, the Bank increased its lending in the traditional SME, Commercial, and Corporate segment in recent years. The Bank also offers Islamic Banking solutions, via RAKislamic, throughout its 38 branches and its Telephone and Digital Banking channels. RAKBANK is a public joint stock company headquartered in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah and listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). For more information, please visit www.rakbank.ae or contact the Call Centre on +9714 213 0000. Alternatively, you can connect with RAKBANK via twitter.com/rakbanklive and facebook.com/rakbank.

For media enquiries, please contact:

RAKBANK

Geraldine Dagher

Geraldine@rakbank.ae