BMI Bank, the Bahrain-based associate of BankMuscat - the largest financial services provider in Oman, posed a net profit of $2.4 million (BD0.9 million) for the first quarter of this year.

That was an increase of 73 per cent over the same period last year when the bank recorded a net profit of $1.4 million (BD0.52 million).

The bank's capital adequacy ratio further strengthened to over 23 per cent.

'I am pleased with our first quarter's performance as we continue to transform the business into a strong retail, SME and commercial banking business whilst also growing customer numbers,' said group chief executive officer Andrew Bainbridge.

'Our results show good growth across our operations in Bahrain, Qatar and the Seychelles with the underlying business continuing to do well across all segments.

'During the first quarter we opened 1,000 net savings and current accounts and refreshed our Al Mazyona Savings Certificates to include a higher number of prizes thereby giving our customers a higher number of chances to win.

'Our new IT platform which will enable us to offer our customers timely execution, better information flow and sophisticated products will be launched in the second half of this year.'

'Whilst we see some signs of recovery, we remain cautious overall in our assessment of the outlook for the business environment,' he said.

'We continue to maintain top class capital adequacy with very strong liquidity and are committed to delivering innovative products and services to better serve our customers and the population of Bahrain.'-TradeArabia News Service