Bahrain-headquartered global Islamic banking major, Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) yesterday announced that Standard and Poor's (S&P) has rated its subsidiary Jordan Islamic Bank for the first time, assigning it a long-term counterparty credit rating of BB / B (short-term) with a stable outlook. Jordan Islamic Bank is a subsidiary of ABG and is the largest Islamic bank in Jordan.
Jordan Islamic Bank is 66 per cent owned by ABG, which has shown a strong commitment to all its subsidiaries.
The S&P country rating for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is also BB / B with a Stable Outlook.
S&P said that the rating of Jordan Islamic Bank reflected the overall resilience of the bank, its good track record in terms of asset quality, satisfactory funding and liquidity profile supported by a strong retail franchise and leading position in the Islamic banking market in Jordan.
S&P added that the strategy of the bank emphasises on sustained growth and further enhancement of the systems and integration within the ABG.
"The rating of Jordan Islamic Bank by S&P for the first time is indeed a significant step for the bank in its move towards a wider profile and business positioning. The bank has show excellent growth in all its financial fundamentals over the years and has shown consistently good results even through the current economic downturn," said Adnan Ahmed Yousif, the President and Chief Executive of ABG and the Chairman of Jordan Islamic Bank.
Musa Shihadeh, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jordan Islamic Bank said that the bank has a strong and faithful customer base as it conducts its activities strictly with the glorious Shari'a, adding value to the economy and all of its stakeholders.
"It has a well diversified financing portfolio covering many sectors of the economy. The rating by S&P is an endorsement of the excellent manner in which the bank is perceived in the Jordanian and international markets and will give it the impetus to do even better in the future," he added.
ABG is a Bahrain Joint Stock Company listed on Bahrain and Nasdaq Dubai stock exchanges.
ABG offers retail, corporate and investment banking and treasury services strictly in accordance with the principles of the Islamic Shari'a.
The authorised capital of ABG is $1.5 billion, while total shareholders equity amounts to about $1.7 billion.
The group has a wide geographical presence in the form of subsidiary banking Units and representative offices in twelve countries, which in turn provide their services through more than 300 branches. These banking Units are Jordan Islamic Bank, Jordan; Albaraka Islamic Bank, Bahrain; Albaraka Islamic Bank, Pakistan; Banque Albaraka D'Algerie, Algeria; Albaraka Bank Sudan, Sudan; Albaraka Bank, South Africa; Albaraka Bank Lebanon, Lebanon; Bank Et-Tamweel Al-Tunisi Al-Saudi, Tunisia; the Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank, Egypt; Albaraka Turk Participation Bank, Turkey; Albaraka Bank Syria and a representative office in Indonesia.
By Mahmood Rafique
© Bahrain Tribune 2010
