KUWAIT CITY, July 18: Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced its financial results for the half year ended June 30, 2017. Commenting on the financial results, Ali Al Mousa the bank’s Chairman said that the Bank’s total assets reached KD 4,164.0 million at the end of June 2017 (compared with KD 4,137.9 million at the end of June 2016) and operating income increased to KD 74.3 million from KD 70.7 million for the 1st half 2016.Al Mousa explained that the bank witnessed a growth in the fee income by 8.9% and 8.0% in the interest income resulting in operating profit of KD 53.2 million for the six months period of 2017 up by 4.5% compared with KD 50.9 million for the same period in 2016.Al Mousa emphasized on the bank’s prudent & conservative policy of building the required provisions, with provisions amounting to KD 141.06 million with coverage of 1207% for NPL. Building such buffers will help to absorb any shock resulting from the volatile economic, geopolitical situation in the region and any adverse conditions. The net profit after allocation of provisions was KD 2.0 million compared to KD 11.5 million for the same period last year, decreasing by 82.7%.Al Mousa referred to the other strong financial indicators at the end of June 2017 where the bank continues to maintain a lower NPL ratio which reached 0.49% a much lower than the industry average, capital adequacy ratio stood at 18.39 %, the leverage ratio stood at 10.4%, liquidity coverage ratio stood at 175.0% and Net Stable Funding Ratio stood at 106.4% comfortably exceeding the minimum requirement set by the Central Bank of Kuwait.The bank continues to demonstrate its cost leadership with operational efficiency, a competitive advantage for the bank which continues to maintain one of the lowest cost/income ratios among Kuwait banks at 28.5% for the period ended June 30, 2017.