National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has reported a 19.6 per cent jump in net profits for the three months to the end of September to BD11.4m ($30.1m), from BD9.5m in the same period of 2008.

According to the bank, net interest income rose 9.4 per cent to BD12.1m and other income rose 30.1 per cent, giving the bank total operating income of BD17.7m, up from BD15.7m.

“NBB has excellent asset quality and has not taken any provisions in this quarter, but its results are not representative of the wider Bahraini retail banking sector where some of the competition has been a bit less conservative,” says Suleman Soorani, a banking analyst at Bahrain’s Sico Investment Bank.

NBB also said loans and advances dropped slightly to BD1.11bn from BD1.12bn, and customer deposits also fell from BD1.48bn to to BD1.46bn.

Total assets fell from BD2.04bn to BD2.03bn.