Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Kuwait Finance House–Bahrain (KFH-B), on the sidelines of the opening of KFH-B Isa Town Branch, in an interview told the 24X7 News that the merger would create an Islamic investment bank with a capital of $400 million and assets of roughly $500 million.
“KFH-B is consultant and advising this process in which three leading Islamic Investment banks will merge together and create a new institution,” he said, adding that the new institution will be up and running soon.
He didn’t reveal the names of the banks and said it would be pre-mature to reveal the names at this stage. “We will announce this pretty soon as things are in final stages.”
“Bahrain’s banking sector has survived the recent financial crisis but now the need of the hour is to consolidate the base of the Islamic banks and financial institutions enabling them to play a robust role in the economic development of the country,” Alkhayyat, said, while commenting on the outlook of the overall baking system in Bahrain.
Commenting on the flow of credit in the market, he said that conditions of the credit market were positive as in auto loan there has been an over 100% increase in the past month.
“The salary increase, projects of Tamkeen and major lending by the Bahrain Developing Bank have started reflecting on the growth of credit market and also underlying the importance of the spending of the consumers,” he added.
These all indicators, he said, are good and the Bahrain’s economy will emerge even stronger in the months ahead.
Earlier on the expansion he said KFH-B would continue to broaden its presence in Bahrain’s competitive banking sector and strengthened its expansion plans with the recent opening of its ninth branch at Isa Town Mall.
“We are delighted with the opening of this branch as we will be able to provide our customers in Isa Town with an enhanced banking experience by offering them even greater convenience and flexibility at all times,” he said.
“Thanks to a strategic initiative adopted to expand KFH-Bahrain’s presence in the local market, our customer base is growing at a rapid pace. We are also committed to ensuring that our customers are able to make better choices in how and where they conduct their banking activities,” Khalid Rafea, Executive Manager and Head of Banking Group at KFH-B, said.
Conveniently positioned at prime locations throughout the Kingdom, each of KFH-B’s nine branches utilise state-of-the-art technologies to serve their customers swiftly and efficiently with high quality products and services that are Shari’a compliant.