Foreign banks are arriving in Kuwait at last, just as the Bank of Kuwait and Middle East takeover signals the domestic market’s renewed attraction, writes Paul Melly.On October 2, HSBC Middle East became the second foreign bank to open its doors in Kuwait under the pilot liberalisation programme developed by the authorities in the past year.
Adel El-Labban, CEO of Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank, talks to Stephen Timewell about progress on his plans for a pan-Gulf retail network. Most banks in the six states of the increasingly rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have tended to focus on their domestic markets and as a result remained relatively small compared with the region’s enormous wealth. But now a few are breaking through traditional barriers, creating regional networks and realising some of the Gulf’s potential.Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank (AUB) has been a pioneer of mergers and acquisitions in the Gulf and this remains central to the bank’s strategy.