By Ashraf Abdul Wahab,
Tripoli, 30 October 2013:
Bahrain’s largest bank, the Arab Banking Corporation, which is 59 percent owned by the Libyan . . .[restrict]Central Bank, has appointed Khaled Kawan as President and Chief Executive.
Kawan, a Libyan, has been deputy president and CEO for the last four years. ABC was set up in 1981 as an Abu Dhabi, Kuwaiti and Libyan joint venture and its first CEO was Libya’s Abdulla Saudi. Abu Dhabi sold its shares to Libya in 2010. Quoted on the Bahrain stock exchange, the bank now has 1,300 institutional and individual shareholders.
Originally established to catch Bahrain’s offshore banking boom, ABC expanded into the syndicated loan market and grew to become one of the Middle East’s largest investment banks. An unsuccessful association with a venture to start a regional insurance market based on Bahrain, was later followed bythe creation of a retail banking arm. Through subsidiaries, ABC is present in the Algerian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Tunisian retail markets.
Kawan , who gained a doctorate of banking law at the Sorbonne joined, ABC in 1991. [/restrict]
