Kuwait’s banks are slowly recovering from the global financial crisis and bankers are optimistic for 2015. However, issues remain, including high exposure to the real estate market, outstanding debt settlements and a funding shortfall for the country’s SMEs.
After a false start, Islamic banking has become the fastest growing segment of the Pakistani banking industry, with the full support of the government. Apart from the ever-present challenge of liquidity management, most local Islamic bankers agree that their most important task now is to build awareness in the country.
The past year has seen a number of firsts in the Islamic finance industry, including the first sovereign sukuk from the West. This represents a huge step forward for an industry previously considered niche. Islamic players now must consolidate on these gains by broadening their product offerings, expanding their customer bases and targeting new levels of interoperability with global markets.
Though the recent story of Islamic finance is largely a successful one, the sector's relative lack of maturity means that some shortfalls do exist. One of these – the supply-demand mismatch regarding small and medium-sized enterprises – has left a potentially lucrative hole to fill.
Despite the plunge in the value of the renminbi earlier this year and growing concerns over China's long-term growth, the offshore renminbi bond market shows no signs of slowing down. Issuance volumes continue increasing annually, but most importantly the market is becoming more sophisticated.