Banking
From The Report: Qatar 2022
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Well capitalised and supported by one of the world’s wealthiest economies, Qatar’s banking sector has successfully navigated a range of external challenges in recent years. It has emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic in an advantageous position to leverage the resurgence in local and international demand for a variety of financing options. Consisting of commercial, Islamic, investment and development banks, the sector benefits from the country’s onshore Qatar Financial Centre – which is governed by an independent legal and regulatory body – as well as a growing financial technology industry. The banking sector and the economy as a whole are set to benefit from expanding demand for Qatar’s energy exports, which supports government revenue and lending opportunities.

This chapter contains interviews with Abdulla Mubarak Al Khalifa, Group CEO, Qatar National Bank; Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi, CEO, HSBC Qatar; and Joseph Abraham, Group CEO, Commercial Bank of Qatar.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Quality assets: A supportive regulatory framework, coupled with efforts to diversify offerings and the client base, fuels growth
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Well capitalised and supported by one of the world’s wealthiest economies per capita, Qatar’s banking sector has successfully navigated a range of external challenges in recent years. It has emerged strong and resilient, in an advantageous position to leverage the resurgence in local and international demand for a wide variety of financing options. Consisting of commercial, Islamic, investment and development banks, the sector benefits from the country’s onshore Qatar Financial Centre (QFC),…

Interview

Partner for development: Abdulla Mubarak Al Khalifa, Group CEO, Qatar National Bank (QNB), on driving sustainable economy-wide growth
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Interview:Abdulla Mubarak Al Khalifa How has the banking sector in Qatar evolved in recent years, and what do you see as the primary market drivers in the short to medium term? ABDULLAMUBARAK AL KHALIFA: Qatar’s banking system is healthy, robust and offers medium- and long-term growth opportunities. There are several figures that highlight this, including the sector’s capital adequacy ratio of 18.8% at the end of 2020 – well above Basel III guidelines. Asset quality remained strong,…

Analysis

Shifting technologies: Innovative solutions and a dynamic network of incubators and accelerators are driving digitalisation across the sector
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Expanding Qatar’s range of financial services has been a priority in recent years, enshrined in Qatar National Vision 2030, as well as other government strategies. Indeed, a wide and deep financial services sector is essential to fostering broad-based growth and connecting Qatar’s start-up ecosystem with international counterparts. Specifically, the government is seeking to foster partnerships between banks and the wider financial ecosystem in order to digitalise and improve services, including…

Interview

Financing the future: Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi, CEO, HSBC Qatar, on risk mitigation and the transition to sustainable business models
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Interview:Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi How has the Covid-19 pandemic shaped the banking system’s approach to risk mitigation, and what factors will be key to recovery? ABDUL HAKEEM MOSTAFAWI: The pandemic demonstrated the importance of non-financial risk (NFR), especially resilience risk, in the banking sector. In particular, the swift adoption of technologies to minimise disruption to services was crucial during the health crisis, as was ensuring that controls were in place to mitigate cybercrime…

Interview

Urgency to innovate: Joseph Abraham, Group CEO, Commercial Bank of Qatar, on leveraging innovation to improve the client experience
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Interview:Joseph Abraham What role does technology play in improving the consumer experience, and what is the optimum balance of in-person and online banking? JOSEPH ABRAHAM: As technology evolves, banks need to adapt and improve their capacity to innovate. The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant effect on digitalisation in Qatar’s banking sector, as it drastically shortened the time institutions had to implement new and innovative digital solutions in their daily operations. By some estimates,…

Analysis

Tie-up trend: GCC banks consolidate to boost resilience against future crises
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The Gulf banking sector has witnessed an increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in recent years, as lenders continue to deal with the economic headwinds associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. At the outset of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, it was anticipated that the economic slowdown and the associated fall in oil prices would accelerate the M&A trend among banks in the region, with most institutions expecting constrained profitability despite performing well on risk indicators. Pandemic…