The MENA market for sukuk,or sharia-compliant bonds, has seen an impressive recovery since the onset of the global financial crisis led to a sharp dip in Islamic debt issuance. After peaking at $19bn in 2007, the value of the region’s annual sukuk offerings settled at about half that in the following three years, according to KIPCO...
It has been another strong year for Qatar’s Islamic financial services (IFS) companies, which have continued a well-established trend of outpacing their conventional rivals in terms of growth. The nation’s IFS sector has emerged as one of the region’s most vibrant, comprising a rapidly expanding Islamic banking segment, an array of Islamic...
Having been formally upgraded to emerging market status by the influential Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) in the summer of 2014, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) entered 2015 on the back of a memorable year. The exchange closed out 2014 as the fastest-growing stock market in the region, and now that it enjoys a greater prominence in...
The upgrade of the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index in May 2014, which was followed by a similar upgrade by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), was the reward of a long process of technical and regulatory reform. The genesis of this process dates back half a decade: in 2010 Qatar’s adoption of the NYSE Euronext...
Despite having one of the lowest non-performing loan (NPL) rates in the region, the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008 came as a reminder to Qatari lenders of the vulnerability of some areas of their loan books to economic distress. The high levels of personal debt in the GCC were of particular concern to regional regulators and many...
A rapidly expanding population and a steady supply of hydrocarbons and infrastructure projects have allowed Qatar’s banking sector to maintain the double digit growth it has achieved over recent years. However, while the project pipeline remains full, the increasingly competitive banking environment has encouraged the nation’s lenders to seek...
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