Mashreq bank, Dubai's second-largest lender by market value, posted a 5 per cent rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday, thanks to lower loan loss provisions that offset a drop in income.
The lender made a net profit of Dh204 million ($55.5 million) for the three months to September 30, compared with Dh194.4 million in the corresponding period in 2010, according to Reuters calculations based on a bank statement to the Dubai Financial Market.
Net profit for the first nine months of the year stood at Dh756 million, up from Dh647.4 million in 2010, the statement said.
Provisioning stood at Dh846.7 million at the end of September, having been at Dh637 million after the first six months of the year. Income through to September stood at Dh3 billion, down 7.7 per cent from a year earlier.
"We have witnessed stability in the UAE Banking industry, which has reflected in the performance of banks," Mashreq Chairman Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair said in a statement.
Al Ghurair said, however, at the beginning of October that expectations for profit growth within the UAE banking sector would be lower than at the start of the year due to recent global economic turbulence.
Mashreq made two senior appointments during the quarter, with Farhad Irani named as head of its retail banking division in July.
Julio de Quesada joined as head of corporate and investment banking in September.