Kuwait

Kuwait’s insurance sector has expanded rapidly in recent years, with numerous new entrants competing and driving down premium. This has led to concerns that companies are booking high profits at the risk of not keeping enough in reserve to meet future payouts on policies. To counter these worries, a new law was passed in July 2019 which is...

Two of the biggest trends in global insurance in recent years are premium growth in emerging markets and the rising importance of technology across the supply chain. The latter has come to be referred to as insurtech, a potentially disruptive trend that heralds both threats to and opportunities for incumbents and newcomers alike.

Kuwait’s Islamic financial services (IFS) sector is well established, with a long history in both Islamic banking and takaful, or Islamic insurance. The segment has expanded in recent years, building upon the country’s reputation as an emerging centre for sharia-compliant banking, insurance and investment products. The government has...

The performance of the banking sector has rebounded since the 2007-08 global financial crisis. Banks’ balance sheets show that net profit, assets, loans and deposits are all growing strongly, financial metrics look robust, and various industry assessments show that the industry is well capitalised. “It has been several years of effort and...

In what ways do you expect lending to grow, and what impact will regional developments have?

In the three decades before the 2007-08 global financial crisis, the world’s financial networks became increasingly interconnected. Financial system regulatory convergence and the growing penetration of World Trade Organisation rules, as well as the creation of currency unions such as the euro, resulted in a surge in cross-border capital flows...