Middle East's Best Banks
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The best way to understand the evolution of the likes of Riyad Bank in recent years is to flick through the pages of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a vast diversification project by the region’s most important economy.
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SABB may be Saudi Arabia’s best bank, but no financial institution based in the Kingdom can compete with Samba Capital’s investment banking team.
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The Saudi British Bank created history in June 2019 by joining forces with Alawwal Bank to create the third-largest lender by assets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Lenders can approach financial innovation from any angle. Some choose to bolt on products and adapt as they go; others tear up the rulebook and start again.
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Small and medium-sized enterprises have long played a key role in Qatar Islamic Bank’s drive for innovation. The bank aligns itself closely with the country’s Vision 2030 plan, which is underpinned by a desire to diversify an economy long dependent on a handful of big corporates, and revenues earned from gas sales.
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Last year was another good one for Qatar National Bank: it reported net profit of QR14.4 billion ($3.96 billion) in 2019, up 4% year on year, with total assets, deposits and loans all increasing 10% over the same period. In the first quarter of 2020, QNB reported a net profit of QR3.57 billion, despite raising loan loss provisions due to coronavirus.
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A good financial institution doing worthy work in a troubled territory, Bank of Palestine has performed admirably over the last year.
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Bank Dhofar has come a long way in a short period of time. Under its chief executive, Abdul Hakeem Omar Al Ojaili, the bank’s digital strategy isn’t the best in the Middle East, but it leads the way in its home market.
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Oman’s largest bank by assets is also the Sultanate’s best bank. It is big in its home territory: Bank Muscat is three times the size of Oman’s second- , third- and fourth-largest lenders combined. In 2019, it reported a net profit of OR186 million ($482 million), up 3.3% year on year.