Dubai – Mubasher: Emirates Investment Bank (EI Bank) on Sunday reported a 68.75% year-on-year drop in its profits for the third quarter of 2018.

Net profits amounted to AED 5.92 million in Q3-18, compared to AED 18.95 million in Q3-17, according to the bank’s statement to Dubai Financial Market (DFM).

“We entered the second half of the year knowing that it will be a period of challenging market conditions, underpinned by higher interest rates and continued volatility in the regional and global markets. While this has resulted in a period of slower activity for EIBank, our assets under management continued to grow over the course of the quarter,” Khaled Sifri, CEO of EI Bank, commented.

For the first nine months of 2018, the Dubai-based lender’s profits reached AED 32.77 million, from AED 44.38 million in the same period of the prior year.

Operating income stood at AED 108.39 million for the nine-month period ended September, while total assets under EIBank’s management amounted to AED 10.77 billion during the same period.

“We believe that our bank’s long-term financial performance naturally flows from our ability to deliver on this foundational principle,” Sifri added.

It is worth noting that the bank achieved a net profit of AED 26.85 million during the first half of 2018, up 5.6% from AED 25.43 million in H1-17.