The Housing Bank for Trade and Finance, announced that the Group reported a decline in net profit by 49% to reach JD42.5 million for the year 2020.

As a result of the difficult economic situation across the whole world in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic and the expected impact on the economic growth, the Bank continued its conservative approach to build additional provisions for the loan portfolio. As a result, the Bank booked additional loan loss provisions amounted to JD123 million during 2020, which affected the Group net profits.

The Bank continued to report sustainable increase in total income, which increased by 0.9% to reach JD364.3 million for the year 2020, despite the decrease in interest rates across the world and the decrease in non-interest income as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the Bank was able to increase operational profit by 8.6% to reach JD203.5 million for the year 2020, as a result of diversifying income resources and effective cost control process.

Total credit facilities increased by 1.2% to reach JD4.7 billion as at end of December 2020.

Commenting on these results, Abdel Elah Al-Khatib, chairman of the board of directors, said that the Bank continued to perform strong operational results and was able to report sustainable growth in total income despite the challenging economic distress, and the difficult economic challenges as a result of the pandemic. 

The chairman explained that the non-operational decline in net profit is due to conservative approach adopted by the Group to build additional loan loss provisions for the loan portfolio. The chairman said that the Group has booked in 2020 more than double of the amount of loan loss provisions booked last year, in order to protect the Bank assets and enhance the solidness of its financial position in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Al-Khatib added that the Central Bank of Jordan and related Governmental procedures played a vital role in protecting the national economy from the huge effects of this pandemic, wishing that all efforts will collectively participate in supporting the Kingdom’s national response in this regard. 

Al-Khatib added that the Board of Directors, in its meeting held on 21/1/2021, has discussed and approved the Bank’s financial results for the year 2020, and recommended to the General Assembly, a cash dividend of 11% of the share nominal value for the year 2020.

Ammar Al-Safadi, Chief Executive Officer, stated that the Bank continued its efforts to enhance the strength of the financial position, as well as maintaining an effective cost control process, which resulted in solid sustainable growth in operating activities. Al-Safadi added that the Bank maintained strong capital base, with total shareholders’ equity amounted to JD1.2 billion. Capital adequacy ratio and liquidity ratio reached 17.4% and 127% respectively as at 31 December 2020, both ratios are well above the Central Bank of Jordan and Basel requirements.

(These results are preliminary, pending the approval of the Central Bank of Jordan.)