The UAE accounted for 30% of the GCC’s total banking assets in 2014 following another year of steady growth, with Abu Dhabi playing a key role in this expansion. Having successfully emerged from the global economic turbulence of recent years, the sector is on a trajectory of loan-book growth and sustainable profits with all five of the emirate’s biggest lenders posting profits in 2013. A new...
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Hydrocarbons revenues still form the bulk of Abu Dhabi’s GDP and while falling prices are a concern, the emirate has been moving steadily towards its economic diversification targets in line with Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. The past 10 years has seen the non-oil sector expand strongly on the back of business-friendly government policies, as a result of which non-oil sector growth now outpaces that of the oil sector.
Legislation regulating Oman’s sharia-compliant insurance market has moved a step closer to being finalised after the State Council approved a draft law that will help encourage new investment in the takaful (Islamic insurance) industry.
Articles & Analysis | Beyond bricks: Mobile money and microfinance go rural from The Report: Cote d'Ivoire 2015
While commercial banks have been rebuilding and expanding their bricks-and-mortar networks since 2011, the keys to reaching unbanked populations are proving to be alternative means like mobile money and microfinance institutions (MFIs). A handful of new MFIs – sanitised through fresh rules issued in 2011 – have seen strong double-digit growth in...
Articles & Analysis | Rules and takeovers: Regulatory changes and privatisations are drawing foreign investors from The Report: Cote d'Ivoire 2015
As larger banking groups expand their reach within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine, UEMOA), authorities at the region’s central bank have recently implemented a number of significant changes. First, they have raised capital requirements to enhance lenders’ scale. Second, they have begun...
