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Banking & Finance

Banking news and finance news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

Banking & Finance overview

Banking & Finance news

A customer uses a Bank Muscat ATM. Banks in Oman recorded a 15 percent rise in profits in 2024

Takeover raises Oman bank competition concerns

Oman’s second-largest lender by assets, Sohar International Bank, has secured approval from a smaller rival, Ahli Bank, for it to acquire Ahli. The takeover comes as concerns are raised that consolidation in the country’s banking sector could limit choice and competition, and raise costs for customers. Ahli Bank, which was set up in 2007, said […]

QNB's QAR4.26bn ($1.17bn) net profit for Q1 was seen as a 'healthy result'

Qatar National Bank Q1 profit spurs share recovery

Qatar National Bank (QNB), the Middle East and Africa’s largest bank by assets, reported a slight increase in first-quarter net profit on higher net interest income which helped offset its domestic tax bill. Government-run QNB made a net profit of QAR4.26 billion ($1.17 billion) in the three months to March 31, up 2.8 percent versus […]

Sanabil SILQ

Sanabil leads $110m funding for Saudi-Bangladesh startup

Sanabil Investments, a venture capital arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has made its first investment in South Asia. The PIF unit and the US venture capital fund Valar Ventures, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Paypal, are jointly leading the $110 million funding round for SILQ Group, a new e-commerce platform, […]

Saudi minister of industry and mineral resources Bandar Al-Khorayef at the inauguration of Lucid Motor's first EV manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia

PIF-owned Lucid raises new funds to repay debt

US electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors, majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has raised $1.1 billion in new funding to repay existing debt. The EV maker has received $1.1 billion through convertible senior notes, debt which can be converted into shares, due in 2030, according to a company statement.  Lucid will use $936 […]

A man walks past an installation celebrating HSBC's 160th anniversary at its Hong Kong offices. The bank was the highest investment fee earner in the Mena region

HSBC dominates as Mena investment banking fees soar

Investment banking fee revenue in the Middle East and North Africa soared during the first quarter thanks to record debt arrangements, increased mergers and acquisitions and more initial public offerings. The industry’s regional earnings underline the growing importance of the Mena region to international banks, although the revenue from fees remains a fraction of those […]

Lebanon Riad Salameh

Judge in Lebanon paves way for ex-central bank chief indictment

A judge in Lebanon has published a court decision in the embezzlement charges against the country’s former central bank chief, Riad Salameh, paving the way for an indictment. Judge Bilal Halawi published a “presumptive decision” concluding that Salameh, who served as central bank governor for 30 years before his term ended in disgrace in July 2023, had engaged […]

People in Istanbul using their mobile phones. Turkey’s fintech ecosystem and young population are some of the factors behind a burgeoning startup sector

Turkish startups scaling up, despite political unrest

Turkey’s startups bucked global trends in 2024, posting significant increases in the number of transactions and volumes.  Despite the current political turmoil, further growth is forecast for the year ahead. There were 331 transactions recorded last year, compared with 297 in 2023, according to a recent report by financial services firm KPMG. Value increased by […]

Customers use an ATM outside a Bank Sohar branch in Muscat

Oman’s Sohar International Bank targets rival Ahli

Sohar International Bank, Oman’s second-biggest bank by assets, has expressed an interest in buying smaller rival Ahli Bank as it seeks to compete with its bigger competitor, Bank Muscat, and others. Sohar International has sent a letter of intent to Ahli, one of the smaller banks in the country. Ahli, which was set up in 2007, […]

Iraq Central Bank governor Ali Al-Allaq said the country's banking sector needs reform to cope with new technology

Iraq starts banking sector restructuring plan

Iraq announced this week the start of a much-awaited post-war project to restructure its banking system with the help of the US consultancy company Oliver Wyman. The Central Bank of Iraq said restructuring would be implemented in stages. “Iraqi banks have gone a long way in developing their services but they are required to take […]

PIF subsidiary Salic increased its stake in Brazilian beef exporter Miverva to 33.83 percent from 25.5 percent in 2020

PIF unit backs Brazilian beef exporter’s capital top-up

Salic International Investment Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Brazil’s VDQ Holdings have committed to a rights issue by Minerva, a beef exporter seeking to raise new capital. As part of the deal, the two companies, which own stakes in Minerva, have guaranteed a minimum 1 billion reais ($169 million) to […]

Central bank governor Karim Souaid has said Lebanese banks need to merge

Lebanese central bank chief tells banks to merge

Lebanon’s new central bank governor pledged to depositors on Friday they would recover their money and told local banks to increase their capital through mergers. Karim Souaid said during a ceremony as he took office that small depositors would be given priority in obtaining their funds and that the central bank and the government would […]

Shoppers in Kuwait City. The central bank's new rules aim to improve financial transparency, says commerce minister Khalifa Al Ajeel

Kuwait money reforms force exchange shops to close doors

Tougher anti-money laundering rules in Kuwait have forced more than 100 exchange companies to close, according to local reports. The Central Bank of Kuwait’s new rules, which took effect on April 1, include closer scrutiny and an increase in minimum capital to KWD2 million ($6.6 million). On Tuesday Khalifa Al Ajeel, Kuwait’s commerce and industry […]

ADVA has applied for Egypt’s first digital consumer finance license, which will reduce barriers to access for more than 50 million underbanked Egyptians

IHC unit enters Egypt’s consumer finance sector

2PointZero, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-listed International Holding Company (IHC), has acquired ADVA, an Egyptian consumer finance company. The buyout by Maseera Holding for Financial Investments (Maseera), a subsidiary of 2PointZero, is part of its parent company’s $1 billion investment plan, the state-run Wam news agency reported. ADVA will be Maseera’s technology and data analytics […]

Damac chairman Hussain Sajwani at his residence in Dubai. Forbes calculates his wealth at more than $10 billion

Damac chairman Sajwani’s wealth doubles to more than $10bn

The fortune of Hussain Sajwani, the chairman of Dubai-based Damac Properties, has doubled in the last year as he takes his place among the world’s wealthiest individuals to become the richest businessman in the Middle East. The 72-year-old real estate magnate is worth $10.2 billion, the annual rich list from Forbes says, significantly higher than […]

Karim Souaid, a former investment banker and asset manager, is the sixth governor of the Banque du Liban

After 2 years without a central banker, Souaid divides Lebanon

Last Thursday the Lebanese cabinet approved Karim Souaid as the sixth governor of the country’s central bank, Banque du Liban.  Souaid, a former investment banker and asset manager, takes up the post after two years in which Lebanon had no formal banking chief and as the country enters a seventh year of economic and political […]

Indian snack maker Haldiram's will use the new funds to expand across the US and the Middle East

IHC invests in Indian snack maker Haldiram’s

Abu Dhabi conglomerate International Holding Company (IHC), New York-based Alpha Wave Global and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek have invested in an Indian snack maker as part of an equity financing round, PwC, the financial advisor to the deal, said in a statement. Indian government-owned Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that IHC and Alpha Wave collectively acquired […]

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at President Donald Trump's speech to the US Congress in March

Assets at Kushner’s Affinity soar after Gulf cash injection

Assets under management at Jared Kushner’s investment company Affinity Partners jumped 60 percent last year to $4.8 billion, according to a regulatory filing. The company received a cash injection from Middle East investors, including Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, launched the investment firm in 2021 after leaving the White House […]

People walk past Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut. The IMF is calling for greater data transparency in the Lebanese economy

IMF says Lebanon needs new strategy to reboot economy

Lebanon needs a comprehensive strategy for rebooting its economy in order to access a programme with the International Monetary Fund, with stress on data transparency, the IMF said on Thursday. “First and foremost, what is needed is a comprehensive strategy for economic rehabilitation,” said spokesperson Julie Kozack in a press briefing. She confirmed that the […]

Zaytouna Bay, Beirut. Lebanon has Eurobonds with a face value of $31.3 billion outstanding

Lebanon bondholders pick US bank for debt talks

Lebanon’s bondholders have hired US investment bank Houlihan Lokey as financial adviser for eventual debt talks, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. Lebanon has been engulfed in a severe economic crisis since 2019, when its financial system collapsed under the weight of massive state debts, which prompted a sovereign default in 2020. In […]

Tunisia's banking changes, specifically decreasing cheque reliance, are negatively affecting business income and slowing overall economic progress

Cheque ban and banking changes endanger Tunisian growth

Reforms aimed at reducing Tunisians’ usage of cheques and thereby cutting consumer debt are having a negative impact on the country’s overall economic growth, according to economists. Cheques had until recently been an important tool for both payments and credit in Tunisia, but in February new laws aimed at strengthening the ailing Tunisian economy and […]

Kuwait skyline. Kuwait’s draft law on mortgage financing was submitted for government approval in 2018 and the banking industry appears increasingly confident it will come into effect soon

Caution advised over upsurge in Kuwaiti bank shares

Shares in Kuwaiti banks are hitting new highs as investors bet on a long-mooted change in the law on mortgages coming into force soon and spurring a boom in property financing. However, analysts are warning that the sector’s equity rally may prove unjustified, with any earnings windfall unlikely to be as substantial as those enjoyed […]