Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank just posted its Q1 2021 earning results and they pretty much killed it. The country’s second-largest lender (by assets) recorded a 40% net profit increase for the quarter to SAR 3.34b ($890.6m) – largely due to low impairment charges.

Not to steal their thunder, but the KSA lender’s earnings were in line with those of big US banks, which also posted better-than-expected results last week. Banks around the world were forced to massively increase impairment reserves in the first three months of last year, in the first place, to help cushion the impacts of the pandemic.

Closer to home, Dubai's biggest bank, Emirates NBD (ENBD), just posted a rise in Q1 profits too — 12% to be exact.