QNB Profit Rises 3.2% as Abu Dhabi’s FAB Keeps Its Lead by Assets
QNB Group, the Qatari lender locked in a long-running contest with First Abu Dhabi Bank to be the Middle East’s biggest bank, posted a 3.2% rise in first-half profit while remaining the smaller of the two by assets.
Net income climbed to 8.67 billion riyals ($2.4 billion) in the six months through June, the Doha-based bank said in a statement. Operating income rose 11% to 24.1 billion riyals. Stripping out the effect of hyperinflation accounting in some of QNB’s markets, profit advanced 12% to 11.1 billion riyals.
Total assets reached 1.438 trillion riyals ($395 billion) at the end of June, up 6% from a year earlier. Loans grew 8% to 1.042 trillion riyals, outpacing a 4% rise in deposits to 973 billion riyals and pushing the loan-to-deposit ratio to about 107%.
First Abu Dhabi Bank remains the larger institution. FAB held 1.49 trillion dirhams ($406 billion) of assets at the end of March, roughly $11 billion, or about 3%, more than QNB, after overtaking its Qatari rival during 2025.
The profit picture is less clear-cut because the two are on different reporting calendars. QNB has published half-year earnings, while FAB has yet to report beyond the first quarter, when it made 5.01 billion dirhams ($1.36 billion), more than QNB’s roughly $1.19 billion in the same three months. For all of 2025, FAB also earned more, with 21.11 billion dirhams ($5.75 billion) against QNB’s 17 billion riyals ($4.67 billion).
QNB’s asset quality held firm. Non-performing loans stood at 2.5% of the total, with coverage of 99%, while the capital adequacy ratio was 19.8% and total equity rose 10% to 130 billion riyals. Its cost-to-income ratio of 24.1%, a measure of efficiency, is among the lowest for large lenders in the region.
Gulf banks have gained from higher-for-longer US interest rates, which their central banks track through currency pegs to the dollar, widening lending margins even as loan growth cools. A cleaner comparison of the region’s two biggest banking groups will come when FAB reports half-year results on July 29.
Sources: QNB Group; First Abu Dhabi Bank; Qatar Stock Exchange; Qatar News Agency; Emirates News Agency.
