A report by Standard & Poor’s Rating Agency “S&P” said that the assets of 9 Kuwaiti banks is about $317.1 billion, and the assets of the conventional banks included in the sample was to $191 billion as on June 30, 2022.
The National Bank of Kuwait tops the list with $112 billion in assets followed by the Burgan Bank of Kuwait with $24 billion, Gulf Bank with $22 billion, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait with $19 billion, and finally the Commercial Bank of Kuwait with assets of $14 billion.
As for Kuwaiti Islamic banks, their assets amounted to $126.1 billion led by Kuwait Finance House “KFH” with assets worth $74.3 billion, followed by Boubyan Bank and Ahli United Bank with assets of $24.9 billion and $15.9 billion, respectively, then the Kuwait International Bank “KIB” with assets of $11.5 billion.
The agency expected the Gulf banks would end the current year on a solid foundation, as it said that the Gulf banking sector will return to pre-Corona pandemic levels during 2022, with the help of strong economic activity and high interest rates, as support from the top helped avoid the worst of asset quality indicators.
The agency said that the growth of lending in the Kuwaiti banking sector has continued against the background of government projects, as it expects the emergence of some non-performing loans in the second half of this year, especially loans granted to the commercial real estate sector, mainly offices, which have not fully recovered yet.
With regard to lending, S&P expected that Kuwait will witness an accelerated growth in the pace of lending, which will be supported by stronger economic growth and the influx of government investments. According to the data published by the agency, the volume of loans in the banks classified by them amounted to $192 million and 624,000 as of June 30, 2022, knowing that the growth rate is non-annual.
While the agency said that the Gulf banks are in a comfortable position to cover the additional flows of non-performing loans, whose index rose on June 30, 2022, slightly to 161.8%. However, it expects the regional coverage to decline slightly in 2022 and 2023 but remains well above 100%.
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