Business & Finance Club - Dubai : Dubai-based Commercial Bank International (CBI) has reported a record net profit of Dh70.28 million ($19.13 million) for the first half of the year, a 3.3 per cent increase over the same period in 2009.

Earnings increased 2 per cent over the previous year on a per share basis, the bank said in a statement.

Overall provisions declined 36.3 per cent over the corresponding period in the previous year mainly due to lower loan loss provisions. Loan loss provisions declined nearly 65 per cent to Dh31 million from Dh88 million in the previous year.

The bank also experienced significant increase in fee income due to its focus on transactional banking and the commission and fee based income grew by 13.8 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

'Despite the tough economic scenario, the bank remained mostly risk averse during the first half of 2010 and focused on fine-tuning its internal processes and delivering quality products to customers,” said Douwe J Oppedijk, chief executive officer, CBI.

“Towards the end of the first half, the business started gaining traction and this is expected to continue.”

“We plan to aggressively build on the current momentum by launching new products, expanding our network and enhancing the service quality, in line with our strategy. We will continue to invest in technology and people to offer better products and services and to remain at the forefront of Emiratisation in the banking industry,” he added.

Total assets declined 2 per cent to Dh10.71 billion, compared to Dh10.93 billion at the end of 2009.

The decline in assets primarily reflects the bank's cautious approach to loan book growth, which increased 0.3 per cent to Dh7.83 billion (net) compared to the year end 2009 figures, the statement said.

Customer deposits declined 3.1 per cent to Dh8.29 billion from Dh8.55 billion at the end of 2009, but overall liquidity conditions remained favourable, according to the statement.

Shareholders’ equity rose 3.5 per cent to Dh1.74 billion compared to Dh1.68 billion at the end of 2009.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio at the end of first half stood at 15.92 per cent, against a minimum of 12 per cent as prescribed by the Central Bank.

The balance sheet continued to be healthy with liquid assets of Dh1.07 billion. Advances-to-stable-resources ratio is maintained at 0.92:1 as against the Central Bank directive of 1:1, the bank said in the statement.