Housing Bank holds its annual general assembly

During its meeting held on May 11, the general assembly of the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (Housing Bank) officially approved the report of the bank’s board of directors, the financial statements of the year 2019 and the bank’s business plan for the year 2020. 

The general assembly also appointed Deloitte as an external auditor to audit the bank’s accounts for the year 2020. 

Pursuant to the provisions of Defence Order No. (5) for the year 2020 and the procedures issued by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply on April 9 and the approval of the minister on April 30, the Housing Bank’s 47th ordinary general assembly meeting was conducted using the Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform with a quorum of 94.07 per cent.

The meeting was headed by the Housing Bank Chairman, Abdel Elah Al Khatib.

Khatib noted the results of the Housing Bank’s operations for 2019, underscoring that despite strong competition and the economic challenges, the bank’s total assets have increased since December 2018 by 1.7 per cent to reach JD8.4 billion as at the end of 2019. Customer deposits stood at JD5.8 billion as at the end of 2019, while total direct credit facilities reached JD4.6 billion and total equity amounted to JD1.1 billion. Total income for the year 2019 reached JD361 million, increasing by JD12.2 million above the same period last year. 

The Housing Bank’s profits before tax totalled JD132.2 million, compared to JD132 million for the previous year. The bank’s net profits reached JD83.7 million compared to JD94.5 million in 2018.

The Housing Bank’s capital adequacy ratio and liquidity ratio stood at 17.3 per cent and 128 per cent respectively, both higher than the minimums requirements of the Central Bank of Jordan and the Basel Committee. The return on average assets and on average equity reached 1 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively, while non-performing loans ratio stood at 5.3 per cent. 

According to the decision of the Central Bank of Jordan No. 1/1/4693 dated April 9, cash dividends will not be distributed to the shareholders for the year 2019.

The bank’s market share reached 13.9 per cent of the total banking sector total assets in Jordan and 13.7 per cent of total customer deposits. 

The bank has maintained its strong presence in the Jordanian market with 125 branches (13.3 per cent market share) and 226 ATMs strategically located nationwide, which in turn constitute about 12.2 per cent of the local market. 

Globally, the bank operates 180 branches, in addition to its representative offices in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Libya.

In light of the Housing Bank’s corporate social responsibility and its national, human and moral duty towards supporting the local community during the COVID-19 crisis, the board of directors has approved the decision to donate JD3.1 million to support the Kingdom’s national response to COVID-19, further demonstrating its commitment to Jordanians given the unprecedented challenges currently levelled against the country’s institutions. 

Meanwhile, an additional JD500,000 was also donated through the bank’s management and employees, in addition to donations made by the employees’ social committee to the "We Cover Their Daily Wage", an initiative launched by a coalition of charitable organisations on the Naua platform, one of the Crown Prince Foundation's initiatives. 

The bank also implemented several awareness and preventive campaigns to protect its employees and clients from COVID-19 and curb the spread of the disease in compliance with the government directives. The bank also worked on parallel track on securing advanced infrastructure and technologies to maintain business continuity and functionality of all support services, while continuing to provide services to its clients during official lockdown periods across all branches and ATMs, and in line with the Central Bank of Jordan’s directives adhering to strict social distancing and safety measures.  

In conclusion, Khatib expressed the bank’s appreciation to the Central Bank of Jordan, the Jordan Securities Commission, in addition to extending special thanks to shareholders, customers, the board of directors, executive management and employees for their efforts.