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ABU DHABI/WAM
The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) reported a significant growth in the assets of the banking sector in the Arab countries, rising to $4.574 trillion at the end of 2023, up from $4.355 trillion in 2022, marking a 5 percent growth.
The AMF’s Financial Stability Report for Arab countries highlights that banks in the UAE hold the largest share of the Arab banking sector’s assets with 24.3 percent, followed closely by Saudi banks with 23.1 percent. Additionally, the banking sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is projected to represent 73.1 percent of the total assets by the end of 2023.
The report added that the growth in the assets of the Arab banking sector reflects the confidence of customers and the market in the banking sector, as the sector was able to achieve this growth despite the current regional and global instability.
The report attributed the growth in assets to the increase in banking sector assets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which account for 58.9 percent of total assets in the Arab banking sector.
Banks in the UAE and Saudi Arabia ranked first and second, respectively, in terms of achieving the largest asset growth rate in the Arab banking sector at the end of last year compared to 2022.
The report indicated that the UAE banking sector’s asset growth rate reached 11 percent as a result of the growth of total credit and investments, while the Saudi banking sector’s asset growth reached 9.3 percent, driven by the rise in real estate loans by 11.5 percent and credit growth in other economic sectors.