Adnan Youssef, chairman of the Union of Arab Banks, announced that 80 Arab banks are listed among the top 1000 largest banks in the world; of which five Egyptian banks are mentioned. Youssef added that most of the Arab banking sectors posted good growth rates in the first half of 2012. He then revealed the growth rates achieved by these countries in such sector as follows: Egypt (3.9%), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (4.9%), Qatar (6.4%), Kuwait (3.4%), UAE (3.4%), Morocco (4.1%), Lebanon (3.8%), Jordan (1%), and Yemen (7.11%). The consolidated budget of the 80 Arab banks reached US$ 65.1 trillion. The list of the top 1000 largest banks includes 19 UAE's banks, 11 KSA's banks, 9 Kuwaiti banks, 8 Bahraini banks, 8 Lebanese banks, 8 Qatari banks, 5 Egyptian banks, 5 Omani banks, 3 Jordanian banks, 3 Moroccan banks and one Iraqi bank. Despite the economic unrest and political transition in the Arab spring countries as well as the euro zone debt crisis, the Arab banking sector was not relatively affected, Youssef affirmed. The Annual Arab Banking Conference will be held in Beirut, Lebanon on 8-9 November 2012 under the title “Economic Stability at a Time of Uncertainty". The Conference will be convened under the auspices of the President of the Council of Ministers of the Lebanese Republic Najib Mikati.
