A report issued by the Union of Arab Banks revealed that the consolidated assets of the Arab banking sector reached $3.467tn by the end of 2018, up 3.9% from 2017.
According to the report, the assets of Arab banks constitute about 130% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Arab countries.
It pointed out that the combined deposits of Arab banks amounted to $2.21tn, while the volume of funds granted by them was $1.89tn.
The UAE banking sector ranked first in terms of asset size, reaching $784bn by the end of 2018, followed by the Saudi banking sector with $630bn, then Qatar’s banking sector with $390bn in assets.
The Egyptian banking sector came fourth with assets of about $303bn, followed by the Lebanese of $250bn, Kuwait’s $220bn, then Bahrain’s $193bn worth of assets.
As for the growth rate of the Arab banking sectors in 2018 compared to 2017, the Lebanese banking sector achieved the highest growth by 13.5%, followed by the Mauritanian banking sector by 13.1%, and thirdly the Egyptian banking sector by 11.7%.
Qatar National Bank was ranked among the top 10 Arab banks with assets worth $236.9bn, then the National Bank of Abu Dhabi with $202.6bn, and Emirates NBD $136.2bn.
The Commercial International Bank ranked fourth with $121bn, then Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank with $97bn, and the National Bank of Kuwait with $90.4bn.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank ranked seventh with assets of $76.2bn, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) with $75.6bn, Samba Financial Group ranked ninth with $61.3bn, and Riyad Bank in tenth place with assets worth $61.3bn.
