Several emerging markets with large Muslim populations combine low bank penetration and a high return on assets with a relatively small market share for Islamic banking, and thus provide further opportunities for growth in the Islamic finance sector.
A deluge of non-performing loans and deleveraging paint a bleak picture of Kazakhstan’s banking sector. But it is against this backdrop that smaller, second-tier banks, which follow much less aggressive strategies and are therefore in much healthier positions, can excel.
French giant Crédit Agricole has been buffeted by speculation surrounding the fate of the eurozone, but CEO Jean-Paul Chifflet explains how the right combination of international expansion and domestic branch network has kept the bank well positioned.
Hit hard during the financial crisis, the Romanian government was the first in the EU to successfully complete an International Monetary Fund loan programme, without even needing to draw the whole loan. Secretary of state for finance Bogdan Dragoi explains his government’s strategy.