“The Islamic banks and financial institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain are treading on the right path of the growth and development, thanks to the inflow of investments and mergers and acquisitions,” Adnan Ahmed Yousif and Managing Director and CEO of Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) in an interview told The24X7News.
“The overall outlook for the Islamic banking industry remains positive in the first half and there are projections of 10% to 12% growth in the Q2 of 2013 compared with Q2 of 2012,” Adnan said.
Talking about regional outlook of the Islamic banking industry, he said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE tops the ladder in growth with recording huge investments.
“Overall growth for GCC likely to be 15% at end of the second quarter and given the trends the year 2013 is likely to be better than 2012,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of consolidation of the Islamic banking industry he said it would serve as a crucial point for the Islamic banking and financial institutions as they have to compete with bigger and strong conventional banking institutions.
“The recent takeover of Bahrain Islamic Bank jointly by National Bank of Bahrain and GOSI will help to bolster the BisB position and being the oldest Islamic bank in the region will be in better position to serve its client base. We want see such more mergers and acquisitions in the region so that Islamic banks and financial institutions should compete with their conventional peers,” Adnan Yousif said.
Adnan also applauded the ongoing talks between Al Salam Bank and BMI Bank for possible merger and said it would further bolster the position of Kingdom of Bahrain’s Islamic banking sector.