WarbaBank

Chief Executive Officer of Warba Bank, Shaheen Hamad Al-Ghanem, said that the financial results achieved by the Bank for 2022, with a growth of 21 percent compared to 2021, proves that Warba Bank is on the right track, driven by a clear operational strategy that accommodates the severity of the changes that occurred in the markets lately.

Al-Ghanem added that “Warba” recorded during the past financial periods deliberate financial leaps that were in line with its plan for sustainable growth, pointing to the importance of approving a cash distribution for the first time since the Bank’s establishment, and the strong indicators of the improvement of “Warba” path and its financial efficiency increase.

Al-Ghanem stressed that the prudence of the Central Bank of Kuwait in managing the local banking scene in cooperation with bank leaders was one of the main reasons for increasing the efficiency of Kuwaiti banks’ results compared to last year in general. This seems clear when reading the results announced so far and expected from the rest of the banks, noting that they all contradict the functioning of many foreign banks, which show greater suffering in facing the complexities of the financial crisis that we are witnessing in the markets since the pandemic, compared to the performance of Kuwaiti banks, which have enhanced the strength of their various indicators.

Al-Ghanem inferred the reports of international rating agencies, which confirmed that Kuwaiti banks enjoy high capital buffers, which reflects their conservative application of Basel (3) standards, and these high capital buffers give them strong ability to absorb unexpected losses.

Al-Ghanem praised the role of the Central Bank and its wise leadership of the local banking sector in overcoming the visible and indirect challenges resulting from global repercussions through a flexible monetary policy in absorbing the global repercussions affecting the global system financially and economically.

Al-Ghanem pointed out that the Central Bank's gradual policy in determining interest trends locally created a well-thought-out monetary balance, to achieve a double benefit that combined maintaining appropriate economic growth and increasing efforts to combat rising inflation globally while it grows rationally locally, driven by sound monetary policy with prudent intervention tools.

Al-Ghanem pointed out that the regulatory move recorded gradually in determining the trends of credit interest locally while providing an appropriate margin for banks to price deposits increased the ability of banks to face the rapid and growing changes globally in determining interest rates and in a way that reduced the cost of funds in banks.

Al-Ghanem also said that the Central Bank’s policy of gradually defining interest trends without the traditional catching up with the US Federal Reserve System achieved the broader monetary goal in terms of preserving the attractiveness of the Dinar by preserving the settlement of deposits at prices suitable for banks and depositors, which is recorded by the growth movement of financing and deposits since the adoption of this policy last March.

Al-Ghanem expected Warba to continue growing in its market shares, whether in its financing portfolio or deposits, strengthening its financial position with total assets amounting to KD 4.2 billion, with a low percentage of bad debts of approximately 1.5 percent and a capital adequacy ratio of approximately 17 percent.

Al-Ghanem stressed the continuation of Warba’s approach to expanding its qualitative and advanced investments in digitizing its services with high competitive limits, which placed it in an advanced banking position among the major local banks, in line with the achieved and targeted ambitions of the Bank's clients.