Qatar National Bank (QNB Group) ( ar, بنك قطر الوطني) is a Qatari multinational commercial bank headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It was founded in 1964 and currently has subsidiaries and associates in 31 countries spanning three continents. The bank's ownership is evenly divided between the Qatar Investment Authority and members of the public.

History

QNB was founded on 6 June 1964 as the country's first domestically-owned commercial bank. It had 35 employees in its first year and was initially headquartered in a government-owned building in Qatar's capital city, Doha. The two currencies in circulation at the time were the

Indian rupee The Indian rupee (symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency in the republic of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 '' paise'' (singular: ''paisa''), though as of 2022, coins of denomination of 1 rupee are the lowest value in use wh ...

and

British pound Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

. As Qatar's population continued increasing through the century, QNB started establishing branches in other parts of the country. In 1974, the first branches outside of Doha were opened in

Al Khor Al Khor ( ar, الخور; also spelled ''Al Khawr''), officially Al Khor and Al Thakhira, is a municipality in coastal northeastern Qatar. Al Khor City, the municipal seat, is located in the northeast coast of Qatar, around from the capital, ...

and

Mesaieed Mesaieed ( ar, مسيعيد, also transliterated as ''Musay'id'' and ''Umm Sa'id'') is an industrial city in Al Wakrah Municipality in the State of Qatar, approximately south of Doha. It was one of the most important cities in Qatar during the ...

. The bank installed its first ATMs in 1988 in its Doha branches, and, in the next year, introduced VISA cards for its clients. By 2015, it had established 76 branches in Qatar. Qatar National Bank (QNB) controls an 82.59 percent stake in Bank QNB Indonesia. For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, net profit was QR 9.5 billion (US$ 2.6 billion). Total assets also increased by 8% since September 30, 2019, to reach QR986 billion (US$271 billion).

Data leak

A leak of data from the bank was made public in April 2016. The leaked files were published on

Cryptome Cryptome is an online library and 501(c)(3) private foundation created in 1996 by John Young and Deborah Natsios. The site collects information about freedom of expression, privacy, cryptography, dual-use technologies, national security, intell ...

. The files contained the personal data of the bank's clients, as well as credit card information and passwords. The leak was divided into folders for individual groups of clients; these included Qatar's Al Thani family, state security officials, staff of

Al Jazeera Media Network Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) (Arabic: الجزيرة‎, romanized: al-jazīrah, IPA: �l (d)ʒæˈziːrɐ , referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is a Qatari international state-owned public media conglomerate headquartered at Qatar Radio and Tel ...

, the news organisation endowed by the Qatari state, former Qatari national intelligence agency Mukhabarat, UK's currently active foreign intelligence counterpart

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

and their nondescript French and Polish counterparts.

References

{{reflist Banks of Qatar Banks established in 1964 1964 establishments in Qatar Qatari brands Companies based in Doha Multinational companies headquartered in Qatar Companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange

History

Data leak

See also

References