Emirates NBD Retail Banking & Wealth Management (RBWM) unit reported a total income of AED1.94bn ($527.8m) for the first quarter of 2019.

This marks an increase of 8% from previous year’s figure.

Private Banking is said to have a “very strong first quarter with significant revenue growth”.

Revenues in Priority Banking grew 5% from last year.

Overall, the banking group posted net profit of AED2.74bn.

This is a 15% rise from AED2.38bn a year ago.

The rise was said to be due to loan growth, fee income and higher margins.

Total income at the group was AED4.72bn for the quarter ended 31 March 2019, up 15% from AED4.1bn in the same period last year.

Non-interest income soared 18% to AED1.32bn from AED1.12bn, while net interest income increased 14% year-on-year to AED3.4bn.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio, common equity tier 1 ratio, and tier 1 ratio at the end of March 2019 were 22%, 16.8%, and 20.9%, respectively.

Emirates NBD group CFO Surya Subramanian said: “The operating performance for the first quarter of 2019 was pleasing as we delivered growth in both net interest income and fee income.

“Costs improved by 7% from the previous quarter due to a reduction in staff costs, lower professional fees and marketing expenses.”