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AfricaOctober 1 2016

Top 100 Arab Banks: has the oil price slump hurt profits?

The drop in oil prices and regional unrest have seen Arab banks struggle to maintain their stellar profit results of previous years, but overall their performances remain impressive by global standards.
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Despite a turbulent year characterised by low oil prices and increasing concerns about ongoing political and security instability in the region, The Banker’s Top 100 Arab Banks ranking for 2016 – which features year-end results for 2015 – shows that lenders in the Middle East and north Africa are still able to turn in a profit while expanding their core asset bases and improving their overall resilience. That being said, compared with the past few years, key markers in the region are noticeably down.

Tier 1 capital among Arab banks has continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in our 2015 ranking, with an aggregate growth rate of 8.64% among the 100 lenders versus 11.08% the year before bringing the total capital base to $282.8bn, up from $263.16bn. Aggregate balance sheets rose by 5.81% to $2499.5bn, up from $2388bn in the 2015 ranking, but with a marked slowdown in growth from 10.5%. In the 2014 ranking the figure was 12.2%.

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