Bahrain’s banking system is sound and strongly capitalized, the governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has said.

Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj was commenting after a meeting he held with the CEOs of banks in Bahrain.

The banks confirmed that liquidity flows in the domestic banking system remained normal. 

The gathering took comfort from the third quarter results announced by several local banks in recent days which indicated that they remained sound and profitable, said a CBB statement.

The governor encouraged the other banks during the meeting to accelerate the issuance of their financial results to provide reassurance to the retail and wholesale markets alike that the financial position of Bahraini banks remains strong.

“The CBB is receiving regular daily reports from the banks on their liquidity and weekly reports on their risk exposures and these reports indicate that liquidity conditions remain normal,” said Al Maraj.

“No bank felt the need to make use of the CBB’s repo facility which indicated the continuing strength of confidence and funds in the Bahraini Dinar market. Bahraini banks remained well capitalised and were showing good profitability in 2008, even surpassing the record performances for 2007 in most cases,” added the governor.

The banks at the meeting agreed with the CBB’s assessment of the situation and noted that the banking system in Bahrain remains robust, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service