The Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) has granted a license to Kuwait’s Gulf Bank. The Bahrain subsidiary, to be called Gulf Bank BSC, will have an authorized and paid-up capital of $50 million. The wholesale bank will offer such services as corporate and international banking, treasury activities, as well as corporate finance and advisory services.
This brings to a total of 347 the number of financial institutions regulated by the BMA. Gulf Bank is a public shareholding company, established in Kuwait in 1960. It is Kuwait’s third largest bank and second largest commercial bank, with a world ranking of 708.
The bank has a paid-up capital of $267 million and total assets of over six billion dollars. The Bahrain subsidiary will be the bank’s first operation outside Kuwait. Its shareholders are Coast Investment & Development Company, which has a 33.85 percent stake, Alghanim Group with a 21.47 percent stale, Behbehani Group with a 8.29 percent stake and the general public with 36.37 percent of shares.
This is the third Kuwaiti bank to be licensed by the BMA. The other two Kuwaiti banks operating from Bahrain are the National Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait Finance House.
Bahrain is an international financial center in the Middle East, with the largest concentration of financial institutions in the region. With the granting of the new license, the number of financial institutions currently licensed by the BMA totals 347, of which 180 are banks and banking-related institutions, 154 insurance and insurance-related firms and 13 capital market brokers. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
