RIYADH: Strong regional fundamentals and a robust project pipeline drove Gulf Cooperation Council-listed banks’ net profit to a record $16.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 9.2 percent year on year.
This marks the second consecutive quarterly increase, with profits rising 3.7 percent quarter on quarter, supported by broad-based revenue growth and a lower cost-to-income ratio, which offset higher impairments, according to Kuwait-based Kamco Invest’s GCC Banking Sector Report – Q2 2025.
This comes as GCC inflation remained stable in the second quarter despite heightened geopolitical risks.
The report aligns with forecasts that regional economies will grow 4.4 percent in 2025, up from 4 percent, as rising oil output and resilient non-oil activity offset global trade headwinds, according to a recent report by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales with Oxford Economics.
“At the country level, the q-o-q growth remained largely positive with five out of six country aggregates showing a sequential growth in net income while the aggregate for the Bahraini banking sector showed a decline,” said the Kamco report.
