Last year proved to be a stellar year of growth for the top 100 Arab banks around the world as they remained largely resilient to both regional and global economic woes.
While Arab banks recorded impressive growth across all key financial indicators, it is Tier 1 capital, considered the key measure of a bank’s financial resilience from a regulatory perspective and thus serving as a good barometer of a bank’s health, from which The Banker compiles its ranking. The aggregate Tier 1 capital of the 100 Arab banks in this year’s ranking has grown by an impressive 15.3% from $166.9bn at the end of 2010 to $192.5bn at the end of 2011. This is almost double the 8.7% growth seen last year. Simultaneously, the banks grew their assets by 8.36% from $1587bn in 2010 to $1739bn in 2011, while their aggregate pre-tax profits rose by 13% year on year to $29.27bn.