Jordan’s banking sector assets reach $79.5 billion in Q3 2020

AMMAN — The volume of combined assets of the Jordanian banking sector totalled $79.5 billion by the end of the third quarter of 2020, according to Secretary General of the Union of Arab Banks Wissam Fattouh.

“Such figures make the Jordanian banking sector the most secure in the Arab region,” Fattouh said as quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

As for credit facilities granted to the public and private sectors, the secretary general said that they reached some $55.2 billion.

Regarding sources of deposits, loans granted to private sector constituted some 46 per cent, registering the highest rate, followed by public sector debts by 22 per cent.

The banks’ combined capital, reserves and allocations totalled $12.3 billion by the end of the January-September period of 2020, Petra reported.

The capital adequacy ratio was 17.9 per cent during the first-half of 2020, which is higher than the rates required by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ). 

In terms of the types of assets, non-performing loans constituted 5.4 per cent of the total loans by the end of the first-half of 2020, registering a slight increase of 0.4 per cent, compared with that registered at the end of 2019.

The ratio of legal liquidity, implemented by the CBJ reached 128.5 per cent, which is higher than the required 100 per cent, Fattouh added.

The Jordanian banking sector has maintained "sound" rates of profitability, he said, adding that the rate of return on assets achieved by Jordanian banks reached 0.64 per cent during the first half of 2020, while return on equity totalled 5.2 per cent.

Fattouh also lauded the CBJ's measures to handle the economic repercussions of COVID-19 crisis, notably injecting an additional liquidity of JD1.05 billion, through cutting the mandatory reserve, allowing rescheduling personal and SMEs loans and reducing the costs of financing, among others.