Arab 100 most profitable
Arab 100 biggest by equity
The top 100 Arab banks saw net profit fall by 2% in 2001 following a 15% increase in 2000 on an aggregated basis. In turn, the overall return on equity fell to 12.84% from 13.94% in 2000, and the return on assets to 1.2% in 2001 from 1.3% the previous year.
There were variations among country performances. with banks in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait performing well whilst many Bahrain-based banks recorded poorer results, as did Egyptian and Lebanese banks.
The Saudi banking sector continues to be the largest and strongest in the region, aided by the tightly regulated nature of the system. Saudi banks generally display very solid overall financials with high levels of capital and liquidity, and good returns.
Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), headquartered in Bahrain, is the largest of the Arab banks based on total...
