Abstract
Can Banks’ statistics, indicators, performance, and efficiency provide us with any indications about the causes of Arab Spring? This paper examines the 74 banks’ perspective on of Arab countries, where the Arab Spring occurred in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen, versus 241 banks in other fifteen Arab countries. The paper analyzed the aggregate balance sheet items and income statement entries as well as recent trends in total assets, deposits, equity, and net income growth. The paper also examines the evolution of 315 Arab banks over 14 years from 1997 to 2010 of many ratios including Asset quality, capital, operations, and liquidity, and financial soundness. The results show that the majority of banks in the five countries were below the average in their performance. Their ranking, regionally and globally, in terms of the size, performance, and efficiency were weak. The regional and world ranking of these banks gives a glance about the business atmosphere and the economic conditions at these five countries. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4p200
Highlights
The Arab Spring refers to the crop of pro-democracy uprisings in 2011 sweeping the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa
Even though the owners’ capital represents only 13.2% of the total liabilities, Arab banks were meeting the required Capital Adequacy Rate (CAR) of a minimum of 8% of risk weighted assets set by Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Investigating the growth and evolution of Arab banks, one would say that overall banks in Arab countries are doing extremely well in their performance
Summary
The Arab Spring refers to the crop of pro-democracy uprisings in 2011 sweeping the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab Spring began in Tunisia, with the self-immolation of a vegetable seller outside a government building in protest at police harassment This kicked off a wave of protests that ended with the ouster of Tunisian president Ben Ali. Similar protests soon followed around the Middle East and North Africa region. The aim of this paper is to read and to analyse some of the socio-economic statistics with an emphasis on analysing the size, efficiency and performance of Arab banks for a period of 14 years from 1997 to 2010. This interval covers the time before the Arab spring started.
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