Algerian banking is dominated by six state-owned banks that control the vast majority of the country's banking assets, even taking into account a recent fall in market share. However, it is the country's 14 foreign-owned private banks that dominate profitable lending.
Until recently, times were good. While managing just 14% of the sector’s assets, private banks accounted for 30% of banking income. But according to Rachid Sekak, the former chief executive of HSBC Algeria, these profits were driven by “huge opportunities” in trade finance that have now all but disappeared.
