After another tumultuous year for banking in Lebanon, the central bank governor discusses the political pushback against his actions, the potential impact of a new US law targeting Hezbollah and the prospects for his reappointment.

After months of uncertainty, the Lebanese government has finally approved Riad Salamé’s renewal at the head of the country’s central bank. It was right to reappoint him; now he should be left to work unfettered by political interests.

The dearth of equity financing in the region plays into the hands of firms with strong debt franchises. The local banks are not leaving this business to the internationals and there is one local in particular whose efforts to develop its debt financing capacity should be recognized, not least for tapping into the local investor base.

An increased focus on financing small and medium-sized businesses should be another important step towards unleashing the Middle East’s vast untapped reserves of entrepreneurialism. Although rarely easy for risk-conscious lenders, growing the SME book is vital for the region’s future as a banking market. It is something notably lacking in the most oil-dependent economies.

Completed Middle East M&A volumes more than doubled to $110 billion in this awards period, according to Dealogic – although the number of deals fell by about a quarter. Teva’s acquisition of Allergan made up around a third of the volume on its own. The purchase of a 19.5% stake in Rosneft by Glencore and Qatar Investment Authority made up another 10th.

Competition in digital banking is not as fierce as in the Middle East as elsewhere. Rarely do banks’ achievements match their rhetoric in this area.

Events such as the rise and fall in the oil price and the steep devaluation of the Egyptian pound, made 2016 another eventful year for markets businesses in the Middle East.

The region’s wealthy are another group increasingly targeted by both local and international banks. The regional wealth management award goes to a firm with global breadth and expertise in this area, Credit Suisse, which also keeps the top spot in the Middle East in Euromoney’s 2017 private banking survey.

In corporate social responsibility, it is also rare to find financial institutions who manage to take their contributions beyond the occasional charitable donations, but rather put their financial acumen to good use in the community.

Transaction services clients are increasingly well served in the Middle East, particularly in the UAE’s relatively large financial services industry. Local banks have improved their offering, while the biggest international banks also see it as a priority.

Commercial International Bank wins region’s best bank award; winners reflect year of reform and easing bank liquidity; record year for Gulf debt capital markets sees HSBC retaining investment-banking title, while local and international banks do battle for regional and domestic awards.

It was a year of some relief for Middle East banking, as the benefits of reform began to be felt and the oil price recovered. Although they remain partly at the mercy of Opec and the US shale energy industry, there was good news for local and international banks, as the government spending crunch eased up and the region turned to international markets to finance its development projects and budget deficits.

The region’s investment banking market, as ever, remains more tilted to the Gulf, which has recently been less active in blockbuster sovereign wealth-fund M&A mandates and more vigorous in public-sector financing as the lower oil price has bitten.

Last year’s award for best bank transformation honoured Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, a bank that showed great ambition by acquiring a financial institution larger than itself – the Egyptian division of Greek bank Piraeus. By so doing it became an international player in Middle Eastern banking.

A list of winners of Euromoney’s Middle East Awards for Excellence 2017, as well as detailed citations for all of the winners, is available here.

Telecoms tycoon backs new SME online lender; chairman Péretié sees sector-beating ROE.

Market moves to T+2 settlement; boosts eligibility for MSCI inclusion.

As international banks continue to pull out of Africa, Afreximbank president, Benedict Oramah explains why African institutions need to be the main source of support for the continent in times of crisis.

The country’s new minister of finance has ambitions to build factories, cut taxes and combat corruption. His background as an entrepreneur and banker may mean his plans can get off the ground.

The country’s last administration borrowed heavily from banks to sustain inefficient state-owned energy companies at the expense of the private sector – can the newly elected government repay the debt and get banks lending again?

Beehive and Eureeca are using online crowdfunding to raise debt and equity for small businesses in the Middle East. Becoming regulated will allow them to grow rapidly. In time, they could eat the banks’ lunch, or the banks just might swallow them.

The liquidity issues that have plagued the Kingdom’s banks for months appear to have abated. But a persistently low oil price and the impending generational reform programme mean that Saudi Arabia’s financial sector still faces some big challenges.

The emir of Kuwait has revealed a grand plan to transform the country into a regional financial centre by 2035. The country’s bankers and businessmen say they’ve heard it all before. Can Kuwait finally deliver on its promises?

The country needs constructive criticism to pull it out of its stasis. But who will speak up?

Emirate last in GCC to issue bond debut; Kuwaiti issuers to follow the sovereign.

Fintechs in Africa are developing along different lines to their counterparts in Europe and the US, sourcing funding and support away from the banks.

A recent settlement between Citibank and the South African Competition Commission relating to FX manipulation could portend further lawsuits in several other jurisdictions, including the US and UK, but the prospects for potential claimants rely heavily on the outcome of the European Commission’s own investigation.

Boutique firm is first to win mandate; more could join, as IPO will be ‘very complex’.

Whisper it quietly, but a special relationship of sorts has grown between the monetary authorities of Israel and the Palestinian territories, between whom a needs-must spirit of cooperation, engagement and mutual respect exists. Euromoney lifts the lid on technocrats managing to do business amid the noise of politics.

Abdul Hafiz Mansour, the head of Lebanon’s Special Investigation Commission, has a reputation as a tough adversary of financial crime. In a rare interview, he tells Euromoney why his unit is so effective, and why so much money laundering still goes unpunished.