Saudi Al-Rajhi remains biggest Islamic bank

Saudi Arabia’s Al-Rajhi group maintained its position as the world’s largest Islamic bank at the end of 2010 while four in the UAE were among the 10 top Shariah-compliant banks, according to Arab bank data.

At the end of 2010, Al-Rajhi controlled $49.2 billion in assets, nearly a fifth of the combined assets of the Arab region’s Islamic banks, showed the figures by the Beirut-based Union of Arab Banks (UAB).

The report showed the Bank’s assets gained nearly $four billion over the previous year, when it also dominated the world’s Islamic banking industry.

The Kuwait Finance House (KFH) came second by assets, which stood at $43.7 billion at the end of 2010 compared with $39 billion at the end of 2009.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) was ranked third, with assets of about $24.5 billion, followed by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), with around $20.5 billion.

Bahrain’s Al-Baraka Group came fifth, with nearly $15.8 billion while Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) controlled the sixth largest assets of $14.2 billion.

UAB figures showed Al-Rayyan, another Qatari Islamic bank, had the seventh largest assets of around $9.5 billion, followed by the Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB), with nearly $8.9 billion. The ninth and 10^th largest Islamic banks were Al-Jazirah of Saudi Arabia and Al-Ahli United Bank (AUB) of Kuwait, with their assets standing at $8.8 billion and $8.5 billion respectively.

The report showed Al-Rajhi also had the largest capital of around $8.08 billion at the end of 2010. KFH came second with around $4.3 billion, followed by DIB with nearly $2.6 billion, QIB with $2.5 billion and ADIB with $2.2 billion.

As for profits, Al-Rajhi was by far the best performer, netting nearly $1.8 billion in 2010, almost half the combined net earnings of Islamic banks. KFH came second with around $369 million while QIB recorded the third highest income of around $367 million. It was followed by Al-Rayyan with $333 million profit, ADIB with nearly $279 million and DIB with $220 million.

The report showed all other Islamic banks in the region reverted to profits after many of them suffered from losses in 2009, with the exception of Dubai Bank, which recorded a loss of around $79 million in 2010.

Al-Rajhi also controlled the largest deposits among Islamic banks and was also the biggest lender, with a deposit base of $38.1 billion and with loans of nearly $32 billion by the end of 2010.

The figures showed the combined profits of Islamic banks totalled $3.8 billion while their deposits and loans stood at $175 billion and $150 billion respectively.

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