Kuwait owns 6% of Islamic banking assets: Central Bank
Islamic Financial Services Council’s annual meeting underway
KUWAIT: Kuwait accounts for around six percent of all Islamic banking assets in the world, the Central Bank of Kuwait’s (CBK) Executive Director for the Supervision Sector Waleed Al-Awadhi said yesterday. In a speech to open the Islamic Financial Services Council’s annual meeting held in Kuwait, he noted that the Gulf state has been instrumental in the rise of the Islamic finance industry, having launched its first Islamic bank in 1977. He said that Kuwait is working closely with Islamic financial institutions around the world in a bid to give this emerging financial system the exposure it needs. On measures CBK has taken to ensure financial stability, he pointed out that the Kuwaiti bank has spearheaded the local banking sector’s efforts to create a financial system that is highly resistant to economic shocks.
Financial stability alone would not suffice, Awadhi explained during the three-day meeting, citing the need for “balanced and steady economic growth” which can be achieved through stringent policies that lead to stability in the financial sector. The CBK official divulged that conventional
First Islamic bank in Kuwait in 1977
banks in the country own more than 60 percent of total Kuwaiti banking assets, adding that the bank stays abreast of financial developments in order to keep the local financial system afloat. Dishing out statistics, he revealed that the Kuwaiti banking sector’s capital adequacy ratio stands at 18.45 percent, saying that protecting capital requirement is among measures CBK has taken to cope with a capricious financial market.