The Kuwaiti banking sector enjoyed another strong year of growth in 2018. But the country’s Islamic banks emerged as the standout performers within this wider story. By most performance metrics, sharia-compliant banks outperformed their conventional peers. Notably, this has occurred against a backdrop of profound transformation for Kuwait’s Islamic finance sector.
On the one hand, a cross-border merger between Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the country’s largest Islamic bank, and Ahli United Bank of Bahrain (AUB), is moving forward. On the other, sharia-compliant Kuwaiti banks are pushing ahead with product and service innovations that are likely to shape the industry’s growth elsewhere.
