Banking Sector in 2007 in the Middle East
Executive Summary
The business report identifies the key players in the banking sector in the Middle East and the reasons for their success, major policy issues in the banking sector, and prospects for the banking sector. The report employed secondary research in collecting data on the banking industry in the Middle East. The credible sources of information for the research include books, research journals, trade journals, business magazines, newspapers, trade association reports, and firm reports. The methods of analysis employed are cause and effect, historical trends, comparison, and derivation of implications. The report also employed success factors as an analytical tool emerging in the business sector. There are ten top players in the banking sector in the Middle East based on capitalization, assets, market, and financial performance. The strengths of these individual banks lie in their achievement of the two key success factors. One is banking efficiency encompassing capital growth and asset management. The other is development of banking processes based on high levels of trust or by building fiduciary relationships with various stakeholders. There are also policy issues faced by these banks in the areas of monetary policy, bank sector policy, bank regulation policy, financial openness policy, and institutional environment policy. The issues in these areas affect the top performing banks variedly depending on the environmental context on which these operate. Prospects for eight of the top performing banks favor growth because of the alignment of these strategies with the areas for growth while prospects for two top performing banks is uncertain because the dependence of the success of the strategies upon the occurrence of various conditions. Change and improvements need to occur at the sector and business levels to support competitiveness and sustainability at these levels.
1. Introduction
The banking sector in the Middle East is growing fast because of the concurrent growth in the market for banking and capital services. However, the financial services are in the midst of an overhaul because of changes in the market. The population in the Middle East is becoming younger. More women receive higher education in the region that increases the average educational attainment for the region. These factors supported the demand for new products suited to a younger and educated population. As such, the strategic direction of the banking sector is towards the greater diversity in financial products and improvement in value adding services. In addition, there is also greater demand for regulations and practices to better monitor processes to enhance security of financial systems and banking or finance institutions in the Middle East. In response, banks are investing heavily in enhancing competencies to compete in the region and globally.
Business firms in the banking sector need to develop competitiveness in order to maintain favorable positions in the industry as well as take advantage of emerging opportunities. One opportunity is the future growth in bank loans, which means individual banks should develop loan packages addressing the various needs of the market at competitive terms. Another opportunity is the expected growth in credit card applications in the next five years spurred by expected growth in spending because of income-generating developments in other sectors. Still another opportunity is the future growth in the microfinance sector with many individuals drawn towards the establishment of small to medium businesses. Last opportunity is bank assurance or the integration of banking and insurance spurred by growth in business.
However, there are also challenges or issues in the banking sector faced by individual banking and finance sectors such as competition from foreign firms and variances in standards of the different jurisdictions. The ability to address these challenges distinguishes the successful firms.
The business report identifies the key players in the banking sector in the Middle East and the reasons for their success, major policy issues in the banking sector, and prospects for the banking sector.
2. Research Methods
The report employed secondary research in collecting data on the banking industry in the Middle East. This method pertains to the collection, collation, and synthesis of researches or reports collected for an original purpose. This is the opposite of primary research, which draws data for the original purpose of the study. (2003; , 2003) The credible sources of information for the research include books, research journals, trade journals, business magazines, newspapers, trade association reports, and firm reports. The methods of analysis employed are cause and effect, historical trends, comparison, and derivation of implications. The report also employed success factors as an analytical tool emerging in the business sector.
The research process commenced with brainstorming among the group members about the approach to the research, the information requirements, and the steps in completing the research process. The next step is library and online search of sources on the banking sector in the Middle East. There is a wide range of sources so there is need to select the key sources according to relevance to the research problems and objectives set for the investigation. Synthesis and analysis of the resources comprised the step before the write-up of the report.
3. Key Firms in the Banking Sector in the Middle East
The ten key players in the banking sector in the Middle East are the following:
v National Bank of Bahrain
v Bank Hapoalim Ltd.
v National Bank of Kuwait
v National Commercial Bank
v Oman International Bank
v Jordan Ahli Bank
v Bank Saderat
v National Bank of Dubai
v Qatar National Bank
v Akbank
These banks comprise the leading banks in the Middle East because of their influence in the local and regional economy as well as role in supporting sustainable economic development. At the industry and business levels, these banks also maintain high levels of capitalization and experience positive bank reputation or credit rating with the central bank of the country of origin and in the region. These banks comprise the top ten performers in the banking sector in the Middle East, albeit the ranking varies depending on the focus of the consideration.
Top Banks
Country
Strategy
Slogan
National Bank of Bahrain
Bahrain
Strengthen our leadership position in the domestic market and increase penetration in regional markets in order to further improve shareholder returns without compromising on the bank's asset quality and excellent credit ratings
Service Beyond Banking
Bank Hapoalim Ltd.
Israel
Retail and international expansion to drive the next part of the earnings cycle through opportunistic acquisitions to enter foreign markets
Being First is a Commitment
National Bank of Kuwait
Kuwait
Expansion strategy through a major transformation program (investment in infrastructure and human development) to provide a platform for larger scale operation, in a more open and competitive environment, and keep in step with the evolution of banking practices and converging technologies
Best Bank in the Middle East
National Commercial Bank
Saudi Arabia
Dynamic customer-oriented approach that make customers creative partners in improving the precise tailoring of the bank's retail products to people's needs in an ever-changing marketplace
Together as One
Oman International Bank
Oman
Provide superior value to customers and maintain strong relationship built on trust Deliver consistent returns to its shareholders backed by a determination to pursue growth with prudent risk management
A Friend & Partner
Jordan Ahli Bank
Jordan
Provide high quality, innovative and comprehensive financial solutions for its clients
Expansion plans to reach out to its current and potential clients in all locations
The Power of Change
Bank Saderat
Iran
Diversify its asset base, increase the bank's market share in Iran, increase return on assets through diversified products and services to compete at a national and international level
The Export Bank of Iran
National Bank of Dubai
Dubai, UAE
Generate substantial growth in business and profitability to become the top bank in the UAE by focusing on market expansion via customer-focused products and services
Qatar National Bank
Qatar
Diversify sources of revenue by offering exclusively Islamic financial services that fully comply with the Islamic Sharia guidelines and the regulations set by Qatar Central Bank (QCB)
Together Forward
Akbank
Turkey
Develop and innovate on retail banking products and services via the life cycle theory to maintain and expand its market
Your Success is Our Success
Based on the strategies of these top performing banks in the Middle East, common key success factors emerge that determine the success of these banks relative to other banks in the region.
One success factor is banking efficiency, defined as the extent that the management of the banks is able to raise assets and maximize profitability in the long-term ( 2004). Islamic banks establish partnership relationships with both shareholders and depositors and the top performing banks were able to balance and meet the interests of both shareholder and depositors. The top performing banks achieve this by focusing on internal competencies such as the efficiency of financial, investment and marketing departments by investing in human development practices. Effective asset and investment management best practices developed from decades of experience and compliance with industry and international banking standards determined the success of these banks.
Another success factor is building the bank in the local and regional market by developing high levels of trust ( 2004) with various stakeholders. As mentioned previously, Islamic banking practices treat customers and investors as partners, even as friends or family members. The top performing banks were able to fulfill mutual expectations of trust by delivering significant asset and investment returns as their duty in the fiduciary relationship with stakeholders. All of the top performing banks also engage in community and national economic services such as sponsorship of social welfare services or humanitarian causes to establish a close relationship with the community, which also comprise their market.
4. Major Policy Issues Affecting the Banking Sector in the Middle East
Fragmented industry is a characterization of the banking sector in the Middle East in terms of policies. This is because of the lack of uniformity in the policies implemented by the banking industry in different countries leading to variances in the level and pace of growth in banking and finance. This in itself constitutes a major policy issues but there are also specific policy issues face by the banking sector in the Middle East.
First issue is monetary policy. Generally, the banking sector in the Middle East adheres to the liberalization process, which translates into the market determination of interest rates and credit allocation. However, liberalization is imperfect or incomplete in most banking industries of Middle Eastern countries because of the significant government intervention in market operations. In addition, some of the countries also do not pursue comprehensive framework on monetary policies that affects the effective operation of banks at the regional level. These are major obstructions to the unification of the banking sector in the Middle East as a regional bloc, when regional cooperation could boost the competitiveness of Middle East banks in the global market.
A second issue is banking sector policy. In some countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, banking sector policy effectively supported the development and efficiency of the sector. However, half of countries in the Middle East show a different picture. The inefficiency of the banking sector in these countries could be because of the domination of government-controlled banks, which means government intervention in the areas of liquidity management, interest rate margins, and credit allocation. This gives rise to the privatization debate, with greater levels of efficiency associated with privatization of firms. As such, many Middle East countries need to modernize banking skills. There are even countries without ATM services or credit card products. Moreover, there are also high levels of concentration in the banking industry of some countries. In eight countries, a small number of banks usually control 60 to 70 percent of assets. This is due to difficulties in the entering the industry because of government control of the major banks, making it difficult for smaller private banks to compete. Concentration hampers innovation leading to limited non-cash transaction services to the market.
A third issue is bank regulation policy. Banking regulations emanate from the central bank. There is positive correlation between the independence of the central bank and the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of regulatory policies. In countries with an independent central bank such as Jordan and Morocco, these have strong and updated bank regulations. The effort to comply with the Basel standards is apparent in the regulatory policies, albeit compliance requires further improvement. In the other countries, the central banks are non-independent resulting to problems in supervision of banks and practice of transparency in banks. Bank regulation constitutes an important policy issue faced by the banking sector in the Middle East because this determines bank practices, which in turn determines the ability of banks in the Middle East to develop regional as well as international competitiveness and strength.
A fourth issue is financial openness policy. Adherence to the liberalization process meant that many of the banking industry in Middle East countries encourage openness of current and capital accounts for purposes of regulation. However, even with the adoption of liberalization, in practice, many of the countries enforce limitations on earnings repatriation and foreign currency purchases. Concurrently, the countries practice varied exchange rate policies such as pegged exchange rate relative to the American dollar. The countries also practice forward, parallel or multiple exchange markets. There are also similar limitations on currency transactions.
The last issue is institutional environment policy. Policies affecting the industry environment affect the vibrancy of the banking industry and growth of the individual banks. Policies improving the quality of legal and judicial system and business practices support industry development. Many of the Middle East countries have poor or weak business and institutional infrastructures primarily because of the strong impact of political pressures on the industry. This hampers the growth of the industry and sustainability of the individual banks.
Top Banks
Country
Monetary Policy
Bank Sector Policy
Bank Regulation Policy
Financial Openness Policy
Institutional Environment Policy
National Bank of Bahrain
Bahrain
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
Bank Hapoalim Ltd.
Israel
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
National Bank of Kuwait
Kuwait
Banking skills
Concentration
Effective supervision
Transparency
Growth
National Commercial Bank
Saudi Arabia
Banking skills
Concentration
Effective supervision
Transparency
Growth
Oman International Bank
Oman
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
Jordan Ahli Bank
Jordan
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
Bank Saderat
Iran
Banking skills
Concentration
Effective supervision
Transparency
Growth
National Bank of Dubai
Dubai, UAE
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
Qatar National Bank
Qatar
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
Akbank
Turkey
Efficiency
Limited innovativeness
Comprehensive supervision
Diversity of products & services
Sustainability
These issues have common and varied impact on the top performing banks depending on the degree of liberalization, with the policy issues having different impact on banks operating in an environment with lesser or greater degree of liberalization.
5. Prospects of the Sector
Generally, prospects for the banking sector in the Middle East involve growth opportunities. Increases in disposable income would fuel growth in the banking sector. Growth in the other sectors that affects the decrease in unemployment would also fuel growth in the banking sector. Increasing education and the young population would also boost demand in the modernization of products and services in the banking sector, such as bank loan demands. The continuing investment opportunities in the Middle East and the concurrent entry of foreign investments would also boost growth in the banking sector. Improvements in the regulatory framework of the banks, particularly in countries such as Jordan and United Arab Emirates, would also determine the extent of growth in the next years.
Specific areas of growth in the banking sector in the Middle East include small business loans, bank assurance, and credit card applications. Banks focusing on these areas of growth would largely contribute to growth. However, improving the institutional environment is necessary for banks to achieve growth. This means that the individual banks that would experience growth in the next years are those tapping into these opportunities for growth as well as advocating improvements in the environmental and institutional factors.
Based on the factors fuelling growth and the areas of growth, the future prospects for the top performing banks in the Middle East depends on their respective strategies. The top performing banks in the Middle East have a common strategic focus, which is the development or improvement in products and services offered to customers. Many of the top performing banks recognize the importance of customer focus in developing and diversifying products and services. However, there is a difference in the priority accorded to customer orientation among the banks.
In the case of Bank Hapoalim Ltd. of Israel, it focused on retail expansion as well as opportunistic acquisitions to enable the company to expand to the wider regional and global market. The prospect for the bank is uncertainty on whether pursuing an expansion strategy would lead to growth in the next years because the impact of the strategy depends on the value contributions of the acquisitions as well as the ability of the bank to address the product and service demands of different markets.
With regard to the National Bank of Kuwait, its strategy is also expansion and modernization of its banking processes. The prospect for the bank in the next years is also uncertain because of the dependence on the ability of the bank to innovate given a concentrated banking industry, non-comprehensive regulatory policies, and weak monetary policies. If the bank is to achieve the degree of innovativeness, it also has to play a role in ushering policy improvements.
Top Banks
Country
Strategy
Slogan
Prospect for 2012
National Bank of Bahrain
Bahrain
Strengthen our leadership position in the domestic market and increase penetration in regional markets in order to further improve shareholder returns without compromising on the bank's asset quality and excellent credit ratings
Service Beyond Banking
Bank Hapoalim Ltd.
Israel
Retail and international expansion to drive the next part of the earnings cycle through opportunistic acquisitions to enter foreign markets
Being First is a Commitment
National Bank of Kuwait
Kuwait
Expansion strategy through a major transformation program (investment in infrastructure and human development) to provide a platform for larger scale operation, in a more open and competitive environment, and keep in step with the evolution of banking practices and converging technologies
Best Bank in the Middle East
National Commercial Bank
Saudi Arabia
Dynamic customer-oriented approach that make customers creative partners in improving the precise tailoring of the bank's retail products to people's needs in an ever-changing marketplace
Together as One
Oman International Bank
Oman
Provide superior value to customers and maintain strong relationship built on trust
Deliver consistent returns to its shareholders backed by a determination to pursue growth with prudent risk management
A Friend & Partner
Jordan Ahli Bank
Jordan
Provide high quality, innovative and comprehensive financial solutions for its clients Expansion plans to reach out to its current and potential clients in all locations
The Power of Change
Bank Saderat
Iran
Diversify its asset base, increase the bank's market share in Iran, increase return on assets through diversified products and services to compete at a national and international level
The Export Bank of Iran
National Bank of Dubai
Dubai, UAE
Generate substantial growth in business and profitability to become the top bank in the UAE by focusing on market expansion via customer-focused products and services
Qatar National Bank
Qatar
Diversify sources of revenue by offering exclusively Islamic financial services that fully comply with the Islamic Sharia guidelines and the regulations set by Qatar Central Bank (QCB)
Together Forward
Akbank
Turkey
Develop and innovate on retail banking products and services via the life cycle theory to maintain and expand its market
Your Success is Our Success
Legend:
Growth Loss Uncertain
For the rest of the banks, the prospect for the next years is growth. One reason for this is the strategic focus on the areas of growth. A common goal is improvement in products and service as well as diversification of products and services.
None of the top performing banks is likely to experience loss in the next years by pursuing their current strategic direction regardless of differences in policy context because of internal competencies of the banks and economic resilience of the region.
6. Conclusion
Middle East countries have made changes in their respective financial sectors in the past thirty years as the region sought to establish its role as a trade and financial center in the global market. However, the impact of growth in the region depended on the relative growth in other regions. Many regions experienced faster paced of growth relative to the Middle East. This means that if the region wants to fuel a faster speed of growth, they have to improve economic and business infrastructures to support the improvement of the key sectors, including the banking sector. In the context of developments in the global market, the biggest challenge for the Middle East is the shift towards non-repressive policies, which require practical macroeconomic policies and structure-based reforms. Measures in stabilizing the macroeconomic environment require a concurrent structural environment conducive to the development of the banking sector. Key structural changes include the minimization of public sector intervention in various areas of banking such as in the allocation of credit and improvements in institutional infrastructures such as supervision.
Efforts in the development of the banking sector should focus on the areas of weakness. In many countries in the Middle East, the focus of policies could be lessening the involvement of governments in the operations of the banking sector outside of the limits of supervision, privatization of banks or greater private ownership of government-controlled banks, improvement economic and fiscal policies, improved competitiveness in the sector, greater investment in people development, promotion of development in the parallel non-bank sectors affecting the banking sector, and improved legal or judicial environment.
In the banking sector of the Middle East, the environmental context strongly influences opportunities and threats. Opportunities for the banking sector include the tapping of new markets by diversifying products and services as well as the creation of markets for banking products such as small business loans and bank assurance. Many of the large banks in the Middle East also face the opportunity for expanding its market not only across the region but also in other countries. The banking sector needs to recognize and understand the requirements of these opportunities to succeed in implementation. However, there are also threats including the entry of foreign competitors offering better products and services or operating with processes that are more effective. Another threat is the impact of banking infrastructures of banking sectors in other regions on the ability of the banking sector in the Middle East to compete globally. The banking sector in the Middle East needs to assess these opportunities and threats in order to develop and implement policies conducive to the realization of these opportunities and resolution of the threats. Doing so would enhance the capability of the banking sector in the Middle East to compete globally as a regional bloc.
The individual banks in the Middle East also need to assess their internal strengths and weaknesses to make improvements necessary to develop strengths at the national, regional and global level. There are ten top players in the banking sector in the Middle East, which are identified as such based on capitalization, assets, market, and financial performance. The strengths of these individual banks lie in their achievement of the two key success factors. One is banking efficiency encompassing capital growth and asset management. The other is development of banking processes based on high levels of trust or by building fiduciary relationships with various stakeholders. The top performing banks need to maintain and augment these strengths to support continuous growth in the long-term. The low performing banks need to focus on the development of these competencies in order to improve business performance as a future prospect.
However, even the top performing banks have weaknesses, which are tied to the policy issues emerging in the sector. One weakness is the modernization of banking skills. Another weakness is compliance with international standards such as on transparency. Top performing banks need to focus on these areas of weakness to improve efficiency and effectiveness as future prospects. Low performing banks also need to address these weaknesses to enhance competitiveness in the future.
Addendum (1000 words)
TMA 04 QUESTION 2: Write an addendum to your report (1,000 words) as follows:
(a) Critically assess the process of researching, planning, and writing your report (e.g. evaluating what went well and what could have gone better). (10 marks)
(b) Critically assess the content of your report (e.g. what is good about it, what is not so good, and the impact of any limitations or constraints). Ensure that you include an evaluation of the sources of information that your report draws on. (10 marks)
(c) Reflect on your experiences of working in your research group. You should include a consideration of the extent to which what you have learnt about organizational decision-making in Module 1 of the course can be applied to decision-making in your own research group. The material in Module 1 discusses some of the issues associated with working in groups in organisations and you may think that this literature is applicable to your research group. However, working in a research group as a student is not the same as working in a group in an organisation as an employee. You should assess the impact that this difference might have made to the decision-making processes at work in your research group. There is likely to be much to reflect on, irrespective of how your group fared in performing the research task. This section offers you the opportunity of assessing why things happened in the way they did, whether the group found it easy to work productively together, or whether there were problems. (10 marks)
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