Qatar National Bank (QNB) reported a fall in third-quarter net profits of 7.5 per cent, with profits for the three months to 30 September of QR1.06bn ($291.1m).

In the same period of 2008, the bank reported profits of QR1.14bn. The fall in profits was due to the bank taking provisions of QR104.7m against potential losses on its loan book. This was nearly ten times the size of the provisions taken by the bank in the same period of 2008.

Fee and commission income fell from QR257.8m to QR214.5m in the same period of 2008. The bank’s total assets rose to QR153.2bn from QR145.6bn at the end of September 2008.

QNB is one of the first banks in the region to release quarterly results. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) has released official data for the consolidated profits of all the Saudi banks, showing that profits fell 6.8 per cent in the first eight months of the year to SR21.5bn ($5.73bn).