Middle East Banking Sector Analysis

The financial services sector in the Middle East, one of the world's fastest growing banking markets, is amid massive overhaul. The banking sector is well developed, profitable, and efficient in most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. As per our latest findings, public sector banks, characterized by government intervention in credit allocation, losses and liquidity issues, dominate the banking sector of many countries. In over 50% of the Middle East countries, the banking sector is highly concentrated, we observed.

According to “Middle East Banking Sector Analysis”, our new research report, central banks and other governing bodies in the region are taking several proactive measures to avoid any kind of discrepancies, though the Middle East is least affected as compared to other parts of the world. We also studied what measures are being taken by apex banks to increase consumers’ confidence level. Based on our analysis, it has been estimated that the Middle East banking industry assets will grow at a CAGR of over 16% during 2011-2014.

The geographic segmentation analysis, carried out in the extensive research, projected that the banking sector of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi will witness robust growth in the coming years. However, we found that the progress of financial sector reforms in the region has been uneven despite regulation and supervision. Though many countries like Turkey and Jordan have well-developed financial sector and nations such as Iran and Israel have walked miles, the overall situation in the region’s banking industry is still not satisfactory.

Middle East is one of the world’s largest Islamic banking markets. In the past decade, the Islamic banking has, in fact, evolved from a niche market to an important segment of the region’s local banking industry. It was noticed that in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the assets in the Islamic banking have grown more than those of conventional banks in the past few years.

Our report studied products, services and key players in the banking sector of each country in the Middle East. This way, our research provides an overview of several prominent market players and regulatory environment prevalent in each nation. Such a comprehensive report will help clients analyze opportunities and factors critical to the success of banking industry in the Middle East countries. Detailed information, latest statistics and analysis included in the report will assist in making sound investment decisions.