Return on assets (ROA) at leading Kuwaiti banks dropped last year, as the country’s economy contracted 8.8%, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Kuwait, which makes half of its revenues from oil, had its finances squeezed by both the price crash and the Covid-19 pandemic. The Gulf country’s population, which is mostly made up of expatriate workers and their families, declined by 2.2% in 2020 after growing 3.3% in 2019, reports Reuters.
National Bank of Kuwait, the largest bank in the country by assets and Tier 1 capital, saw ROA fall from 1.46% in 2019 to 0.87% in 2020, according to The Banker Database.
Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the second-largest bank, saw ROA drop from 1.35% in 2019 to 0.86% in 2020.
Burgan Bank, the third-largest bank, saw ROA fall from 1.20% in 2019 to 0.48% in 2020, while Gulf Bank, the country’s fourth-largest bank, saw ROA fall from 1.02% in 2019 to 0.47% in 2020.
With the exception of KFH, which saw ROA drop in 2019, the other three Kuwaiti banks had posted rises in ROA between 2016 and 2019.
Trends identified using The Banker Database, an online database providing comprehensive financial data and insight for 4000 of the world’s leading banks in 190 countries. Contact us.
