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Mohamed Damak said GCC Islamic banks' asset growth has slowed down quite considerably in 2018 and is now more or less on par with the conventional banks.
"We expect that situation to continue as well in 2019 with four per cent growth of total assets of GCC banks. The only two factors that could change base case scenario are geopolitical risk and any significant drop in oil prices."
However, he pointed out GCC Islamic banks still have strong fundamentals, representing a quarter of total assets of the banking system in the Gulf region.
"Their profitability is still adequate and asset quality is also good at three per cent of non-performing loans. The Islamic banks in the region are sitting on a large number of liquid assets which make up 20 per cent of the total assets. Overall, the liquid situation is still good in global standard context as they have high capitalisation," Damak added.
Benjamin Young, primary credit analyst, S&P, said the ratings and outlook will remain stable for most of GCC sovereigns as recent uptake in oil prices have supported fiscal revenues.
"We expect little change in the ranking of the seven sovereigns with assets totaling more than 100 per cent of GDP through our current forecast horizon to 2021. All GCC members are among the 22 sovereigns with liquid assets exceeding 25 per cent of GDP, another three of them have liquid assets worth more than 100 per cent of GDP," Young said in a note. - waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com
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