Boubyan Bank Ranked Among the Top 5 Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC  

Al-Saleh: A New Achievement of Boubyan Bank Amid Such Exceptional Circumstances the World and Kuwait Are Going Through 

Boubyan Bank has made a new achievement as it ranked 5th in Global Finance's list for the Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC. This confirms the success of the bank’s strategy and its resilience in various crises.

Mr. Abdul-Salam Al-Saleh, Boubyan Bank’s Deputy CEO, stated: “This rank is a remarkable achievement for Boubyan Bank in 2020, which witnessed a near complete lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic in Kuwait and the world over the past months that affected various economic sectors.”

He added: “Boubyan Bank has demonstrated its ability to deal with the changes and outcomes of the ongoing crisis by providing services and products around the clock despite the curfew and the lockdown witnessed by Kuwait.”

Al-Saleh went on to add: “The strategy we have been adopting for years in the bank by investing and expanding our digital services confirmed its success and importance in light of the circumstance the world and Kuwait are going through, as reliance increased on the banking services offered through our digital banking channels.”

“Ever since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, we noticed the growing use of our digital banking services by our customers whether through the bank’s website www.bankboubyan.com or through the bank’s mobile App.”, he added.

Al-Saleh further added: “We take pride in all that in addition to the international recognition the bank received, especially that such is based on the reports issued by top financial rating agencies in the world. Additionally, such reports demonstrate through evidence the bank’s ability to take all approved and internationally recognized technical and legal measures in order to maintain the robustness and consistency of the bank’s assets.”

Global Finance’s List 

In its report, Global Finance mentioned that this year was the most challenging one for banks and the banking industry around the world due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted the world’s economy heavily.

This list is considered a renowned and a trustworthy reference in terms of its standard and accurate criteria adopted by Global Finance in its assessment, which is based on long-term credit ratings of banks by international credit rating agencies such as Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard & Poor’s in addition to other criteria pertinent to the total assets and other elements. 

Global Finance stressed in its report that stability and safety continue to top the current priorities in the world of finance and business, and for investors around the world. This shows the importance of this list, which names the safest banks in the world.

Global Finance stated that many investors and customers around the world look for the creditworthiness and the long-term ratings of banks as a main criterion to gauge the safety level of the banks they deal with.

Three Kuwaiti Banks 

The list included the top 10 safest Islamic banks in the GCC and included another two banks from Kuwait in addition to Boubyan Bank, 3 Qatari banks, 3 UAE banks and one Saudi bank.

Boubyan Bank has recently announced its Q3 2020 results with KD 70 million in operating profits while continuing its prudent approach by allocating KD 46 million in provisions, thereby ending the period with KD 23.2 million in net profits. 
The bank has recorded high growth rates, supported by the increase in the number of the bank’s customers in Kuwait in addition to the acquisition of the Bank of London and the Middle East during the first quarter of this year. The consolidated assets of Boubyan Bank Group as of September end of this year grew by 25% to reach KD 6.3 billion.

Also, customers’ deposits grew by 24% to reach KD 5.1 billion, while the financing portfolio grew by 28% to reach KD 4.6 billion, and the operating income grew by 13% to reach KD 123 million.