After more than half a decade of heavy provisioning and regulatory reforms, Kuwait’s banking sector is now in the early stages of resurgence in credit issuance and various other activities. The industry’s overall stability and performance has improved markedly since the 2007-08 global economic downturn, due in large part to a series of new...
In March 2014 Kuwait’s central bank announced that foreign banks would be allowed to operate more than one branch at a time in the country. Moreover, over the past few years the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has worked to encourage banks to boost credit issuance to both individuals and businesses. These changes have been lauded as a means of...
In April 2014 the Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CMBK) received approval from 85% of its shareholders to convert the bank to a full-fledged sharia-compliant lender, making it the most recent financial services provider to begin exploring a possible conversion. Indeed, Ahli United Bank Kuwait (AUB) went through a similar process in 2010. When CMBK...
Over the course of the past decade Kuwait has worked to shore up its longstanding reputation as a centre for Islamic financial services (IFS), leading to the rapid expansion of sharia-compliant banks and investment companies (ICs) in recent years. Islamic banking assets, which accounted for just over 20% of total banking sector assets in 2005...
While Kuwait’s banking sector fared well in the wake of the 2007-08 international financial crisis compared to many GCC states, the sector regulators – the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) – have nevertheless worked to shore up the industry to ensure its long-term stability.
To what extent is the growth of the corporate debt market contingent on greater sovereign issuance?
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