Standard and Poor’s Global Confirms Boubyan Bank’s Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating at “A/Stable”

Al-Majed: We Take Pride in Such Recognitions as We Reap the Fruit of Our Hard Work over the Past Years 

Boubyan Bank has made a new achievement, adding to its successes over the past years, as Standard & Poor’s Global rating agency has confirmed its Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating at “A/Stable”, thereby ranking the bank as the second highest credit rating among local banks.

S&P’s rationale for the rating noted Boubyan Bank as the fifth largest bank in Kuwait, with a solid retail franchise, good market position, strong capitalization as well as exhibiting good profitability.

Mr. Adel Al-Majed, the Vice-Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the bank stated: “With this type of remarkable recognitions, we are reaping the fruit of our hard work and efforts over the past years wherein we have made great leaps across all our financial indicators, especially our market shares across various sectors.”

“Thanks to everybody’s efforts at the bank, we managed to increase our market share in finance, generally, to approximately 9% in the meantime, while Boubyan Bank’s share of the retail finance increased specifically to 12% approximately. Besides, the bank recorded outstanding growth rates in the corporate credit portfolio which stood at 16%.”, he added.

Boubyan Bank has already announced KD 45 million in net profits until September, at a growth rate of 12% compared with the comparative period of the past year, while the earning per share amounts to 15.25 fils compared with 14.20 fils for the comparative period of 2018.  

All of the Bank’s main indicators witnessed a remarkable growth until September 2019 where the total assets increased to KD 5 billion at a growth rate of 18% while the operating income increased to register KD 109 million at a growth rate of 4% in addition to the increase in customers’ deposits by 14% to reach KD 4.1 billion.

The total equity of the bank increased to KD 567 million compared with KD 396 million last year and there was a notable increase in the financing portfolio up to KD 3.6 billion with a growth rate of 14% in addition to the continuous growth of the bank’s customers’ base.

15 Years

Mr. Al-Majed went on to add that: “Such a rating from Standard & Poor’s, the global rating agency, coincides with a significant occasion, namely the celebration of the bank’s 15th anniversary as well as the lapse of 10 years since we have started the implementation of our transformation strategy that we launched back in 2009, and which has led us to this status of excellence.” 

“As we celebrate this occasion, I would like to thank and congratulate all our shareholders, customers and our human resources who are the ones to thank for our significant achievements throughout this journey.”, Al-Majed added. 

A Remarkable Year

This has been an outstanding year for Boubyan Bank where it has received many awards, the most prominent of which was the World’s Best Islamic Digital Bank in addition to being named the Best Islamic Digital Bank in the Middle East by Global Finance. Additionally, the bank received another four awards, namely, the Best Islamic Digital Bank in Kuwait, the Best Mobile Banking App in Kuwait, the Most Innovative Digital Bank in Kuwait, and the Best Innovation in IMAL Technology.

Furthermore, the Noor Boubyan Initiative for eyesight-restoration operations in Africa was named the Best Social Humanitarian Initiative at the GCC level, and the bank received the GCC’s Award for the “Replacement and Nationalization of Manpower in Kuwait”. 

The bank has continued its local achievements and has followed the journey it started many years ago, by adding a new achievement as it was named the Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait by the Banker, the renowned international financial publication, for the second year in a row due to the growth witnessed by the various indicators of the bank as well as the growth of its market shares. 

Furthermore, Boubyan Bank has continued to top the pyramid of customer service in Kuwait, supported by earning two awards from Service Hero, the international consumer-driven customer satisfaction index. The bank received the First Place Award in Customer Service as a Country Winner, for the fourth time in addition to being named the Best Islamic Bank in Customer Service for the ninth year in a row since 2010.  

Al-Majed concluded: “Such global recognitions put more responsibilities on the management to commit to the remarkable service levels we provide to our customers. We believe that creativity and innovation are the way to continue in our path of success.”