Banking

Over the course of 2018 Qatar’s banking industry demonstrated its resilience in the face of an economic blockade placed upon the country by a number of governments. Credit ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch both upgraded Qatar’s sovereign credit ratings outlook to stable in the summer of 2018, recognising the improving macroeconomic scenario and the largely successful resolution of the challenges associated with the economic embargo. This action was accompanied by a number of individual bank upgrades, and in October 2018 Moody’s upgraded the entire banking sector from negative to stable, noting that banking sector profitability will remain stable with strong capital buffers. This chapter contains interviews with Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani, Governor, Qatar Central Bank; Abdul Hakeen Mostafawi, CEO, HSBC Qatar; and Raghavan Seetharaman, CEO, Doha Bank.