Retail Banking

07/29/2012

HSBC Bank Oman logs profit

"The new entity now has one of the largest branch networks in the Sultanate, and will serve the needs of retail, corporate and institutional customers. With the successful completion of this transaction, customers can now benefit from both HSBC Group

07/26/2012

Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait said to expand into India

Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait BSC plans to expand into India after obtaining licenses to open two branches with a target to add two more in the future, Alwasat reported, citing chief executive officer Murad Ali Murad.

07/26/2012

Gulf bank results reflect state spending

Emirates NBD, Dubai's biggest bank by market value, posted a 13 per cent drop in second-quarter earnings, its fourth consecutive quarterly drop. The earnings fell as costs increased and the lender made further provisions on state-linked debt.

07/25/2012

Bank Sohar first half profit soars

Bank Sohar has performed well in all key financial parameters. Net interest income jumped 19.51 per cent to RO20.009 million in the first half of this year, from RO16.742 million for the period ended June 30.

07/24/2012

HSBC, OIB merger brings banking in Oman to global stage

As the operations and technology systems of two leading banking players, Oman International Bank and HSBC, gradually integrate to become one, customers will have access to a full range of award-winning retail banking and wealth management products and ser

07/22/2012

Mashreq reports 7.2% increase in net profit

The bank's ongoing strategic repositioning of its balance sheet led to a decline in provisions for bad loans by 45% to Dhs352m from Dhs637m reported during 1st half in 2011.

07/17/2012

NBO H1 net jumps 17pc

Customer deposits also increased 26 per cent to RO 1.827 billion this year, from RO 1.455 billion during the first half of last year.

07/16/2012

Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait reports net profit

Comprehensive income has increased from BD21.2m in June 2011 to BD32.6m in June 2012; mainly due to improvement in investments valuation reserves, as a result of management strategy to continuously improve and maintain the quality of the investment assets

07/16/2012

National Bank Of Oman Q2 profit up 13.2pc

The lender made a net profit of 10.3 million rials in the three months to June 30, according to Reuters calculations based on a statement to the Muscat stock exchange on Monday, up from 9.1 million rials in the same period of 2011.

07/08/2012

"Lebanese Banking Sector is Extremely Liquid" says Blom Bank

In 2011, top 3 Lebanese banks managed to report decent balance sheet activity as highlighted by a respective 2.5%, 2.1% and 4.5% increase in assets, deposits and loans, despite a slowdown in the local economy and the political turmoil that impacted the M

07/05/2012

UAE Exchange launches banking kiosk

The MyBranch kiosk was developed by UAE Exchange in association with Euronet, a global provider of electronic payment and transaction processing solutions, and MBME, a supplier of kiosk-based payment systems, according to a company press release.

07/02/2012

GCC banks’ credit seen surging to $766b in 2012

Following the bottom-line growth rates of nine per cent and 16 per cent in 2010 and 2011 respectively, analysts at the Kuwait Finance House, or Markaz, expect GCC banks to record a surge of 21 per cent in 2012.

06/27/2012

UAE Firms May Go On Credit Card Strike

The current commission figure varies between businesses but the average is believed to be around 1.5 per cent, equating to a rise of 0.75 per cent.