Access Bank questioned over safe deposit box; law enforcement agency targets two other banks.

Stock market opens up further; influx of foreign money still capped.

View photos from the event.

Emirates NBD wins region’s best bank award and named best digital bank in Middle East; HSBC retains best investment bank crown; New regional winners highlight growing breadth and depth in Middle East finance; CIB’s Hisham Ezz Al Arab wins outstanding contribution accolade.

A list of winners of Euromoney’s Middle East Awards for Excellence 2016, as well as detailed citations for all of the winners, is available here.

Best bank in the Middle East Emirates NBD Best investment bank in the Middle East HSBC Best digital bank in the Middle East Emirates NBD Best bank for financing in the Middle East Citi Best bank for advisory in the Middle East Barclays Best bank for markets in the Middle East National Bank of Abu Dhabi Best bank for transaction services in the Middle East Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Best bank for wealth management in the Middle East Audi Private Bank Best bank for CSR in the Middle East Arab African International Bank Best bank for SMEs Bank of Alexandria Best bank transformation Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait Outstanding contribution to financial services Hisham Ezz Al Arab . Country Awards for Excellence 2016: Middle East Awards for Excellence Middle East press release

Mohamed Mansour’s decision to build his own business to manage his family’s wealth and staff it with seasoned investment bankers was dismissed by some. But six years after its formation, the billionaire’s brainstorm – a hybrid of family office, private equity firm and investment bank – is being praised and even emulated.

As depressed oil prices continue to hit Saudi Arabia’s banks hard, the Kingdom’s plan for radical economic change is being seized upon as cause for optimism.

Euromoney’s country risk survey shows the safety of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) issuers is once again in question, as economies flounder, debts spiral and capital access tightens.

Central bank puts mid-tier lender into receivership; Kenya Commercial Bank wins takeover race.

Oil rout weakens corporate debt sustainability; Rakbank and UAB suffer in SME downturn.

July 7, 2014 loomed as a normal business day for Yulia Vyalova, PrivatBank’s branch network boss in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.

OR250 million ($650 million) sukuk

Euromoney highlights six of the strongest key innovations in Islamic finance from the last 12 months.

UK Export Finance $913 million sukuk (Khadrawy)

The Shariah-complaint finance sector has been growing strongly, but only in a few jurisdictions and with limited product diversity. As oil-derived liquidity flows dry up in its core markets in the Gulf, what can it do to fix its lack of international reach?

A plunging country risk score illustrates how the problems are still mounting for Africa’s largest economy.

If digital payment providers share the cost of building new networks, they might profit handsomely from high volumes of low-value payments between two billion people unserved today by the world’s conventional banks, and become a new testing ground for fintech.

Country risk scores for many of the large emerging markets (EMs) continued to fall in the first months of the year. Risk scores have now reached levels that do not preclude another global shock if China hits the skids.

CEO to press on with pan-African investment; PLC exit comes as African business turns round.

$94 billion coming due by end-2017; Bahrain pays up after downgrade.

Patrick Njoroge has spent much of his career outside Kenya, mostly in Washington at the IMF as a senior economist. Two decades in that role took him around the world, occasionally as its ambassador, more often in a team of firemen fixing damaged economies.

After 20 years at the IMF, Patrick Njoroge gave up life in Washington for the rough and tumble of public life in Kenya. It was a culture shock for the new central bank governor. Now his robust approach is proving to be a shock to the Kenyan system.

A liquidity crunch is affecting banks worldwide and Saudi Arabia is no exception. Deposits are falling as the government pulls out cash to fund the deficit, yet lending continues to grow. Will the banks change their lending models or turn to the capital markets for funding?

Funding constraints of the kind familiar to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now starting to impact multinational corporations (MNCs) with emerging-market (EM) exposure, pushing them to look to their banks for new options to obtain financing.

The sovereign is still high risk, but is improving in Euromoney’s country risk survey, underpinned by the recent election results.

Timing is right for Post Bank launch, says chairman. Branch network will be bigger than Sberbank’s.

Advice sought on new fund; Shoura eyes GOSI shake-up.

The lifting of sanctions meant a stream of international banks would make their way to Iran, right? Wrong. Some banks admit they are taking the first steps on the road to Tehran. Others might be, but they certainly do not want to talk about it. And in either case, there are plenty of barriers to getting there.

Barclays' planned divestment of its Africa unit signals a new normal for the lender but the move appears counter-intuitive given the latter's relative profitability.