War and revolution have shaped the Middle East’s recent history and have left their mark on the banking sector. Senior bankers reflect on the role crisis has played in their careers and on the region’s financial system.

The region’s banks used to be small, local and low-tech – many still are – but in the future they will be altogether different beasts.

Over 50 years, leaders of Middle East financial institutions have steered their businesses through very good and very bad times, including oil price crashes, rampant property and stock speculation, and war. Some key figures highlight the events they remember most and spell out lessons for the next generation.

Islamic finance has come a long way over the past few decades, maturing into a $2.4 trillion industry, but some long-term problems remain and the recent wrangle over a Dana Gas sukuk shows credibility is still an issue.

A string of due-diligence shortcomings enabled the international fraud that sapped investor confidence in once-booming London-listed oil firm Afren – and has also now led to jail time for its two top executives. What lessons can the banking industry learn from the failings laid bare in the court proceedings?

A recent criminal trial in London has revealed how banking negligence enabled a multi-million dollar fraud at the now defunct oil company Afren. Read on for a guide to Olivier Holmey’s feature in the February issue of Euromoney examining the errors made and what the financial sector can learn from them.

Herbert Wigwe, CEO of Access Bank, says his institution’s announced merger with Diamond Bank will not only make it Africa’s largest bank by customers but also give it the potential to double its client base within just two or three years.

Before it sets off into Africa, the international financial institution needs to look to its roots.

Telcos allowed to provide limited services, helping financial inclusion in the country.

Regional difficulties have tested QNB’s resilience, but the bank has managed to consolidate its position at home and maintain its international strength.

The UAE’s largest bank is widely considered to have made a success of its merger and is now looking to realize its international potential.

Warning sirens are sounding about the level of debt Djibouti owes to China for Belt and Road projects. The local view is that they need the money and China is the country that is offering it. But the fate of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway represents the financial challenges of BRI in a 756-kilometre microcosm.

The two Nigerian banks’ merger would form the country’s largest financial institution, but it is somewhat overshadowed by Diamond’s troubled legacy loans to the oil and energy sectors.

In Africa, digital payments are still the future, not the present.

The Trump administration has begun the process of ostracizing Iranian finance. Bankers there are hanging on to some rare good news, but how long will it be till they are back to square one?

The continent is implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to boost intra-regional trade, economic growth and industrialization, but can 54 countries overcome so many obstacles and ratify the agreement?

Euromoney investigates how the relaxation of western sanctions on Iran – dubbed the world’s most lucrative closed economy – will jump-start trade and capital flows from Europe to the Gulf, and plots a vision for the country's banking system and economic transformation, more generally.

Bankers believe that Vivo Energy’s dual listing in May has opened the taps on the IPO pipeline in Africa, but with primary equity markets suffering globally, is the continent really an exception?

Developments in the Gulf’s markets are increasingly being driven by the presence of Asian – and especially Chinese – banks, so no wonder rival financial centres in the region are competing for a bigger slice of the pie.

Planned changes to the country’s fintech licensing regime could halt the growth of a burgeoning market.

A new generation of digital products has slashed the cost of remittances and helped the unbanked meet short-term household or business liquidity needs, but there has been a downside.

New African Capital Partners’ (NACP) first investment target is a large, regional banking group, co-founder Charles Kie tells Euromoney in his first interview since the launch.

The formation of First Abu Dhabi Bank, widely viewed as a success, has sparked a series of merger announcements. Will scale make for better performing banks? And could cross-border mergers in the region finally happen?

Saudi Arabia’s central bank governor recently gave international banks a clear signal that they will not be punished by a loss of fees for avoiding an investment conference in Riyadh due to public outrage over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Ken Moelis lived up to his nickname ‘Ken of Arabia’ when he showed up at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh in late October in his brave pursuit of future fee income despite the risk of international opprobrium.

The murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has sparked condemnation of the kingdom’s leadership the world over, but as the dust settles after the Future Investment Initiative, what are the real-world effects, if any, of this crisis on Saudi Arabia’s banking ties?

The murder of a Saudi journalist has led to the withdrawal of international financiers from Saudi Arabia’s state-run investment conference, and compounded growing fears over the kingdom’s leadership.

Two of the world’s most advanced cryptocurrency markets agree to exchange notes on blockchain regulation.

After a tumultuous decade, the country’s leading investment banks have finally recovered their confidence – and are bursting into new markets and products.

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