OREANDA-NEWS.  Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB has had its Fitch rating of Long Term IDR upgraded to ''''A '''' from the previously held ''''A'''' with a stable outlook.

At the same time, its Short Term IDR was affirmed at ''''F1''''; its Viability Rating remained unaffected at ''''BBB''''; its Support Rating was affirmed at ''''1'''' and its Support Rating Floor was revised to ''''A '''' from ''''A''''.

QIB’s Sukuk Funding Ltd also had its senior unsecured trust certificates’ Long-Term Rating upgraded to ''''A '''' from ''''A''''; while both its trust certificate issuance programme and senior unsecured trust certificates’ Long-Term Rating were upgraded to ''''A '''' from ''''A''''.

Commenting on the ratings, Bassel Gamal, QIB Group’s Chief Executive Officer, welcomed Fitch’s confirmation of the Bank’s financial strength. “The upgraded ratings confirm the strong financial position of Qatar, the banking sector outlook and QIB’s financial vigour, which has been steadily improving in line with our long term objectives,” he said.

“In 2014, the Bank managed to strengthen the key performance and risk metrics through proactive financial and risk management. QIB maintained the ratio of non-performing financing assets to total financing assets at 1%, one of the lowest in the industry, reflecting the quality of our financing assets portfolio and its effective risk management framework,” added Gamal.

“Further, QIB continues to pursue the conservative impairment policy with the coverage ratio for non-performing financing assets reaching 101% as of December 2014, up from 94% when compared to December 2013.”