The Middle East

Kuwait’s insurance sector has posted solid expansion in recent years on the back of growth in a handful of key areas including takaful (Islamic insurance) and other non-life segments, with the industry as a whole bringing in $1.04bn in gross written premiums (GWPs) in 2014. The industry is a crowded one in Kuwait, with the top five insurers controlling around 60% of revenues at the end of 2013...

Over the past decade Kuwait has worked to shore up its longstanding reputation as a centre for Islamic financial services, leading to the rapid expansion of sharia-compliant banks and investment companies in recent years. Islamic banking assets, at just over 20% of the total in 2005, grew to around 45% by the end of 2013, and an IMF report released in December 2014 showed Kuwait’s sharia-...

A series of reforms being implemented by the Capital Markets Authority are expected to benefit the country’s bourse, following on the comprehensive restructuring of the Kuwait Stock Exchange in the years following the 2007-08 economic downturn. In 2009 the Kuwait Stock Exchange introduced a new classification system that organised listed companies into 15 sectors, instead of just eight as...

In recent years Kuwait has seen steadily expanding trade activity with neighbouring countries, the broader Middle East and a variety of key partners further afield. Dependence on oil income is one of the nation’s chief challenges: while the country has continued to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons revenues, oil and other mineral fuels remain the country’s most important export...

Kuwait’s banking system has improved markedly in the years since the global economic downturn: at the end of 2014, total customer and government deposits held by local banks stood at $129.6bn, up from $125.5bn at the end of 2013. Meanwhile, a series of new rules put in place by the Central Bank of Kuwait and other regulatory bodies in recent years have steadied the sector, providing a stable...