Can the West Bank spring a surprise?
Palestinian stock exchange: ‘We never closed'
There are 21 banks in the Palestinian Territories, compared with three at the time of the establishment of the Palestine Monetary Authority in 1994. Ten are local, 10 Arab (with Jordan particularly well represented) and there is one bold multinational – HSBC – that runs a branch in Ramallah. All are privately owned and between them they have 175 branches. "They’re incredibly resilient," says Michael Essex, director of the Middle East and North Africa at the International Finance Corp.
They don’t do much, though. "Due to political uncertainties and border closures, the banking sector has followed very conservative lending policies in terms of absolute exposure," says Hashim Shawwa, general manager of the Bank of Palestine. "Bank credit penetration is very low,...
