Al-Fulaij: Our solid balance-sheet increases optimism for sustaining strong performance

Al-Fulaij: Our solid balance-sheet increases optimism for sustaining strong performance

KUWAIT: Salah Al-Fulaij, the CEO of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) – Kuwait, said that the record financial results reported by the bank during the first half of 2023 are a continuation of the solid performance during the past year, as NBK succeeded in achieving exceptional performance thanks to the improvement in the Group’s income from core business activities. In an interview with CNBC Arabia, Al-Fulaij stated: “the growth in net profit is mainly driven by the increase in net operating income, which boosted by 18.8 percent in the first half of 2023, reaching KD 565.9 million, combined with substantial growth in net interest income and net fees and commissions.”

Al-Fulaij indicated that higher interest rates and the bank’s solid balance-sheet contributed to the increase in margins, expecting this trend to continue moving forward. “Our endeavors to strengthen our balance-sheet, both locally and internationally, across different business sectors, including corporate, retail and Islamic finance, have enabled us to maintain our leadership in the markets where we operate,” he added. “We succeeded in maintaining exceptional levels of credit quality and comfortable liquidity ratios, which paved the way for an increase in earnings per share. We also proceeded with our strategy to maximize