ABC Islamic Bank today announced that it posted a profit of $6.4 million for the nine-month period ending September 2009.

Income for the third quarter was $9.2 million versus $10.6 million for the previous quarter, due largely to lower rates and prudent trimming of balance sheet asset size, the bank said in a statement.

There was a positive impact of lower rates also on profit payable of $4.6 million versus $6.0 million in the previous quarter which allowed net margin to stay unchanged at $4.5 million.

Staff and operating costs for the third quarter were also unchanged at $1.6 million versus the second quarter. The bank did however decide to make conservative provisions for credit losses ending the third quarter at a nominal $175,000 net loss. The provision was made on account of credit exposure in a GCC country, the bank said.

Shareholders’ equity as at September 2009 stood at $167.8 million, compared to          $151 million at the end of the second quarter, the increase during the quarter coming from improvement in fair values of available-for-sale investments. –TradeArabia News Service