Bahrain

With over nine hours of sunshine a day for eight months of the year, Bahrain would appear to be an obvious location in which to pursue solar power as a renewable energy option. Looking to harness this readily available resource, the country has already taken its first steps in establishing a renewable energy strategy and is creating a watchdog...

The large amount of business ceded by Gulf insurers to domestic, regional and global reinsurers has, for many years, been a hot topic in the sector. The downside risks of this market characteristic are frequently rehearsed at industry conferences and regulatory seminars: Middle Eastern insurers, it is argued, have grown accustomed to the easy...

The kingdom’s reputation as an Islamic finance centre rests not only on its long history of successfully regulating its diverse sharia-compliant industry, but also its willingness to revisit its rules as needed. Fittingly, the need for continued reform of the sector was a central theme of the 21st Annual World Islamic Banking Conference, held...

The Islamic banking sector might be outstripping its conventional counterpart in terms of growth, but the rapidly developing industry still faces a number of challenges which ordinary lenders are not confronted by. One of the most salient of them is the question of liquidity, which has existed as a potential impediment to growth since the...

In February 2015 the leading participants in the region’s insurance market came to Bahrain for the Middle East Insurance Forum, an annual event which has become the largest and most influential industry gathering in the Gulf. Staged under the official patronage of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), the event attracted around 500 attendees,...

For decades, Bahrain has been a regional centre for insurance, with domestic and international firms taking advantage of the country’s robust yet accommodating regulatory structure to pursue business both locally and in rapidly emerging regional markets. The nation’s insurance industry faces increased competition on two fronts: at home, a...