Ahlibank Qatar is pinning hopes on the strong capital expenditure laid out by Qatar and also expects to boost its fee-based earnings, especially with its re-entry into brokerage business. On the other hand, it held that lending margins were on the squeeze due to the central bank cap on interest on personal loans.
Although it has not witnessed customers of Islamic banking migrating to other banks and to conventional banking in view of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) directive on curbing Islamic business by conventional lenders, Ahlibank said it will devise a “workable” plan by the year-end and confirmed that some (Islamic) lenders are in talks over possible asset sale……………………………………….Full Article: Source