Saudi, UAE banks rank highest valued in Middle East: Forbes

DUBAI — Saudi Arabia took the top spot in the Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) 2023 list of 50 highest-valued banks, according to a report released on Monday, as the region withstood the burden of Western bank collapses and inflation hikes last month. 

The 50 banks featured in the ranking held an aggregate market value of $548 billion as of Feb. 28, according to Forbes Middle East’s 50 Most Valuable Banks 2023 list.

Of the region’s 22 countries, 10 appeared in the list. Banks from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) take up the lion's share and account for 82% of the rankings.  

There were 10 banks from Saudi Arabia with a combined value of $223.5 billion, as well as 10 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) valued at $121.2 billion, eight from Qatar worth $81.3 billion and seven from Kuwait worth $76.2 billion. 

Here are the 10 highest-valued banks from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region:  

1- Al Rajhi Bank - $75 billion 

2- Saudi National Bank - $56.4 billion 

3- Qatar National Bank Group - $42.8 billion 

4- First Abu Dhabi Bank - $42.4 billion 

5- Kuwait Finance House - $37.5 billion 

6- National Bank of Kuwait - $26.3 billion 

7- Emirates National Bank of Dubai - $23.4 billion 

8- Riyadh Bank - $20.8 billion 

9- Saudi British Bank - $18.2 billion 

10- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank - $15.9 billion 

With a total of four, Morocco was the non-GCC country with the most banks on the list and a combined value of $17.75 billion. Jordan followed in second with three banks holding a value of $6.89 billion, and then Egypt and Tunisia tied in third with one bank each worth $5.2 billion and $1 billion, respectively. 

The Forbes Middle East’s 50 Most Valuable Banks 2023 list also included three female CEOs, with Group CEO Hana Al Rostamani leading First Abu Dhabi Bank in fourth place, Randa Sadik as CEO of Jordan’s Arab Bank in 25th place and Elham Yousry Mahfouz at the helm of Commercial Bank of Kuwait in 33rd place. 

Forbes Middle East said it compiled data from Arab world stock exchanges to create this ranking of MENA countries but did not specify if that factored in countries including Turkey, Israel or Iran. 

It also stated that the data collected was limited to the end of February, so the values do not represent the impact of San Francisco’s Silicon Valley Bank collapse on the region, nor the implications of the collapse of Switzerland's Credit Suisse in which Saudi National Bank (ranked second) had invested billions.