imported 2024-03-17 17:43:07
Video Interview with Dr. Freddie Baz, CFO and Strategy Director of the largest bank in Lebanon, Bank Audi, discusses the health of Lebanon banking sector. Lebanon banks and Lebanon banking sector have succeeded in recording one of the highest growth rates in Lebanon and in the world.
Video Interview with Saad Azhari, Chairman and GM of BLOM Bank. Mr. Azhari assesses the banking sector in Lebanon and explains the biggest challenges and successes of BLOM bank as well as the regional expansion of the leading bank in Lebanon.
While in the United Arab Emirates almost every local commercial bank is involved in real estate financing, Kuwaiti banks watched Kuwait real estate and construction sector more critically.
“Islamic banking and finance started inferior thirty years ago but started to position itself very well within the Kuwait banking and Kuwait investment industry. It dominates the GCC and MENA region and has proved that its underwriting criteria are much stronger than its peers on the conventional side,” says Abdul Aziz Al-Mazooq, CEO of Muthanna Investment Company.
“I think that Kuwait banking system has gone through some very difficult times, and that 2010 will still be difficult and I think the banks have to prepare for the inevitable full turn around. How long it will take, however, is anybody’s guess”, Michel Accad, CEO of Gulf Bank
Interview with Abdullah Al Sumait, Deputy CEO of Al Ahli Bank. In Kuwait most of the banks have made aggressive moves the past three to five years whereas other banks (non Kuwait) have been more cautious towards growth. Eventually big banks all around the world have been hit and Kuwait is not any different. When this happened at the end of 2008 Kuwait government took good steps to protect banks and the financial sector and the central bank enacted some regulations to assure the banks in Kuwait, it would provide the needed liquidity.
Interview with Abdul Aziz Al-Mazooq. Muthanna Investment Company business model is based on a pure Islamic investment banking model focusing on Islamic investment banking activities including transaction advisory services, private equity transactions, real estate investments, and asset management activities like brokerage, equity research, and management of discretionary accounts. It is a basic model Islamic investment banking model, the only thing that keeps Muthanna Investment Company going is focusing on several dimensions at once.
Interview with Fahed Faisal Boodai, Gatehouse Bank. When we at Kuwait Global Securities House say cherry picking we look at this from two points. One, from the investor’s standpoint what does the investor and what are the clients needs in this market? For example, In 2002-2003 Kuwait Global Securities House invested heavily in GCC and Kuwait real estate but slowed down in 2004 – that is where the cherry picking comes in and where opportunities began to be handpicked. Most importantly real estate and investment are all about timing. In 2006-2007, Global Securities House started exiting some of these investments and I think that that was very smart because given the economic downturn we recently witnessed Global Securities House would have really been hurt.
Interview with Mr. Michel Accad, CEO of Gulf Bank
In December, Gulf Bank Kuwait had a meeting with the top fifty leaders at Gulf Bank and we decided on Gulf Bank’s strategic direction. Gulf Bank’s vision was to be a dominant player in the local, conventional banking market, focusing on retail and commercial banking. At this stage, Gulf Bank is not particularly interested in Islamic finance, or direct investments, or brokerage. The key thing that came up from that meeting was that for the next two years Gulf Bank will be in rebuilding mode and our strategy will revolve around four pillars.
Interview with Mohammed Sulaiman Al-Omar, CEO of Kuwait Finance House (KFH). Kuwait Finance House is in green numbers and working within the markets. If we as Kuwait Finance House look at Kuwait costs of funding, it came down from 6.5% to 3% which is almost 50% and if I was a bank and wanted to price my product I would need to look at the base rate, which has come down quite a huge percentage. Thus, Kuwait Finance House is still in the green and are optimistic for the market in the banking sector.
