Kuwait's Gulf Bank said bad loans would weigh on profits through mid-2010 on Sunday after it used all of the 42 million dinars ($147.1 million) of operating profit from the third quarter as provisions. The bank did not publish a figure for net loss or net profit for the third quarter ending September 30.
"The bank decided to take aggressive provisioning against its non-performing loans and credit facilities, particularly the regional portfolio, transferring all its operating profit to the existing provisions," the lender's Chief Executive Michel Accad said in the statement.
Gulf Bank, in which sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) owns a 16 percent stake, posted a net loss of 7.5 million dinars in the first half of 2009. The lender was rescued by the central bank in 2008 after derivatives losses. Its troubles had prompted the government to guarantee all deposits in local banks to restore confidence.
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