Despite the rapid growth that Qatar – and its banking sector – has experienced in recent years, the country's government is not resting on its laurels and is actively looking to address issues such as an overcrowding of the market, overdependence on foreign funding and the economy’s lack of diversification.
One of the few countries to remain largely unaffected by the global financial downturn, Saudi Arabia's economy is growing at a pace and, despite its expansionary fiscal policy, it continues to post a budgetary surplus. It has now started to put this capital to work in tackling pressing social issues, such as its high unemployment rate and housing shortage.
Government spending has kept the Saudi Arabian economy buoyant over the past few years, allowing the country's banks to maintain a healthy profit level in 2012. And their prosperity is showing no signs of waning, with an ambitious home ownership target spurring growth in the mortgage market and momentum building in the small and medium-sized enterprise space.
Saudi Arabia's investment banking industry is gaining momentum, thanks in large part to a region-wide uptick in bond issuance, in mergers and acquisitions and growing demand for project finance. But the evolution of this sector is far from over, as the country's bankers turn their minds to deepening the markets and encouraging the liberalisation of the stock exchange.
With Lebanon's economy feeling the strains of political infighting and the two-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, its banks have been looking overseas in search of growth, establishing footholds in countries such as Turkey and Iraq, as well as seeking to consolidate their presence in Egypt and the Gulf.
In the past year, political turbulence has dented Kuwait's otherwise healthy economy, with political infighting effectively blocking the government's $130bn economic development plan (EDP). But a new government, elected in December 2012, looks set to put an end to the country's political problems and kick-start the EDP.
Largely unaffected by the political and economic turbulence outside the country, Kuwait's banks recorded strong growth in 2012, and are looking to improve on this in 2013, by seeking growth abroad and taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the government's $130bn national development plan.
An Iranian economist reports from the country, telling how the targeted US and UN sanctions have delivered a huge blow to the country's economy, an economy that was already overly dependent upon oil revenues and reeling from years of mismanagement.
Year upon year, the Islamic finance industry posts stellar growth figures. However, as large Western lenders withdraw from the sector, is Islamic finance in as healthy a shape as the figures suggest? The Banker asks a number of experts in the field what the future holds for sharia-compliant banking.
The Banker has identified 13 banks to keep an eye on in the coming year based on a variety of factors. Established in 2013, following a directive authorising Islamic institutions in Oman, Bank Nizwa is the country's first standalone Islamic bank and one to watch in 2013.
Banks are no longer just competing with each other, they are also at war with a growing number of retailers and innovative start-ups that employ social media tactics to offer sought-after services. The Banker brought together a panel of banking experts to discuss the issues. This round table was sponsored by Cisco, but independently written and edited.