The majority of Arab banks enjoyed a good year in 2000 as most of the main Arab countries recorded solid rates of GDP growth, benefiting from the continued high price of oil. Reflecting this, the top 100 Arab banks saw net profit rise by 15% in 2000 on an aggregated basis. The overall return on equity rose to 14.1% in 2000 from 13.2% in 1999, and the return on assets increased to 1.3%.

If ever a finance minister was in the firing line, Shaukat Aziz is that man. The 30-year veteran of Citibank is saddled with the task of selling yet another military government in Pakistan to a sceptical international investor community.

Best bank

Sporadically, the lights go out in Damascus, although power cuts tend to be short-lived and much less frequent than they used to be, say local businessmen. Nevertheless, Syria clearly needs to channel funds into its power sector. Today, it has installed generating capacity of some 3,600MW, and will need to add an estimated 2,200MW by 2006, representing an annual increase in demand of 6%, which calls for an investment of just over $1.6 billion.

Reform, liberalization, infrastructure investment and international borrowing were among the leading topics of discussion at Euromoney's recent conference. Entitled Saudi Arabia: Financing the Future, this, the largest international conference of its scale in the Kingdom to date, took place on May 29-30 at the Al-Faisaliyah Center in the Olaya district of Riyadh. Euromoney organized and hosted the event along with co-organizer Council Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry and co-host Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.

More and more Arab banks accept that they must embrace the internet or risk losing share in their home markets to more technology-savvy international players. National banks see the internet as a means to realize their regional ambitions. Change is under way across the region, perhaps most notably in Bahrain, traditionally the key offshore banking centre in the Gulf. Now Islamic banking and investment banking operations are growing up and offshore banking is becoming less prominent. The country’s leading offshore and local banks are rethinking their strategies and hope to become regional players.

Executives at Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional (PUNB) - Malaysia's National Entrepreneur Corporation - appear to have taken their remit rather too literally.

The $700 billion trade-finance market is one of the few large pools of tradeable fixed-income assets that has not yet attracted the attention of institutional fixed-income investors. Changing that, and propelling the fragmented and illiquid trade-finance market through the same developments that transformed the emerging-market debt market in the 1980s is the ambition of a group of bankers and traders who last month launched Internet Trade Finance Exchange (ITF).

The $700 billion trade finance market is one of the few large pools of tradeable fixed-income assets that has not yet attracted institutional fixed-income investors. Changing that, and propelling the fragmented, illiquid trade finance market through the same developments that transformed emerging market debt in the 1980s, is the goal of bankers and traders who this month launched Internet Trade Finance Exchange (ITF).

To date, most Arab countries have been insulated from outside pressure due to highly protected markets and huge oil reserves. But foreign competition is set to increase, especially for markets joining the World Trade Organization. The biggest banks in small countries will have to look outside their domestic markets for growth, either through acquisitions or alliances. Darren Stubing reports.

To date, most Arab countries have been insulated from outside pressure due to highly protected markets and huge oil reserves. But foreign competition is set to increase, especially for markets joining the World Trade Organization. The biggest banks in small countries will have to look outside their domestic markets for growth, either through acquisitions or alliances. Darren Stubing reports

Conversation in Kazkakhstan in recent months has centred on one topic: oil. What appears to be a major new find has excited locals, multinationals operating in the energy sector and buyers of an oversubscribed sovereign Eurobond. The prospect of this impoverished country, where the average wage is barely $100 a month, becoming the next Kuwait has also enabled the nation teasingly to play prospective bride to both the West and Russia. Ted Kim reports

Credit Suisse First Boston

Who could have dreamt that Korean online trading, almost non-existent two years ago, could be almost as large as that of the US?" So asked Andrew Sheng, chairman of Hong Kong's Securities&Futures Commission (SFC) in an address to the local Securities Institute delivered earlier this spring. Although online trading is gathering momentum across Asia, the speed with which it has been embraced by Korean investors has been staggering. As a report published on Korea's "internet laboratory" by Lehman Brothers early in March commented: "Over just a one-year period, online trading has grown from 4% of market turnover to 45%. Twenty-nine out of 31 domestic brokers now offer online broking services, and two million Korean investors have gone online."

Citigroup's latest acquisition

Arab banks used to be content to stick to their lucrative national markets. But with oil prices low, times are getting harder in the Middle East and banks are positioning themselves to go regional. Darren Stubing reports.

The key to prospects for world growth in 1999 is Japan. I expect the US economy to slow during the year and the core of Europe to grow by less than 2%. So the OECD as a whole is unlikely to achieve even 1% real growth this year unless Japan picks up.

The question of how the world's institutional investors will react to Emu and the changes in the European market over the next year is a much debated topic.

The recent fall in oil prices might once have spelt disaster for the Saudi Arabia's banking sector - slashing government revenues and weakening banks' asset quality. But this time the authorities seem well prepared for the current wave of economic turbulence and the banks are optimistic of riding out the storm. Michael Peterson reports.

Top 100 Arab Banks: Waiting for the after-shock

Top 100 Arab Banks: Waiting for the after-shock

Top 100 Arab Banks: Waiting for the after-shock

Top 100 Arab Banks: Waiting for the after-shock