Manama: Mahmod Rafique, Editor: The balance sheet of the Bahrain’s banking system, retail banks and wholesale sector banks, increased to $246.8 billion at the end of August 2025, an increase of 1.5% compared to the end August of 2024.
The Central Bank of Bahrain’s (CBB) Board of Directors held its fourth meeting for the year 2025, chaired by Hassan Khalifa Al Jalahma on Sunday.
The Board reviewed the topics on the agenda, including CBB’s financial performance report as of end of September 2025, in addition to CBB’s activities and developments in the financial sector for the third quarter of 2025. The Board was also presented with developments relating to supervisory initiatives and payment system upgrade. The GP15 Graduate Development Program was also highlighted as one of the important initiatives being undertaken by CBB.
The Board also reviewed key monetary and banking indicators for the period up to August 2025 including the money supply, which decreased by BD 0.1 billion to reach BD 16.3 billion at the end of August 2025, compared to the same period in 2024. As for retail banks, total private deposits increased to reach BD 13.5 billion at the end of August 2025, an increase of 0.3% compared to the end of August 2024. The outstanding balance of total loans and credit facilities extended to resident economic sectors increased to BD 12.6 billion at the end of August 2025, an increase of 4.0% compared August 2024, with the Business Sector accounting for 40.9% and the Personal Sector at 48.8% of total loans and credit facilities.
Point of Sales (POS) data for the period January 2025 to August 2025 totaled 170.4 million transactions (77.6% of which were contactless), an increase of 22.2% compared to the same period in 2024. The total value of POS transactions for the period January 2025 to August 2025 totaled BD 3.4 billion (51.7% of which were contactless), an increase of 13.6% compared to the same period in 2024.
The banking sector’s capital adequacy ratio reached 20.3% in Q2 2025 compared with 20.4% in Q2 2024. The capital adequacy ratio for the various banking sectors was 29.7% for conventional retail banks, 16.2% for conventional wholesale banks, 23.8% for Islamic retail banks, and 20.0% for Islamic wholesale banks in Q2 2025.
The total number of registered Collective Investment Undertakings (CIUs) as of June 2025 stood at 1733 CIUs, compared to 1707 CIUs as of June 2024. The net asset value (NAV) of the CIUs decreased from US $11.178 billion in Q2 2024 to US $10.915 billion in Q2 2025, reflecting a decrease of 2.35%. The NAV of Shari’a-compliant CIUs increased from US $1.812 billion in Q2 2024 to US $2.060 billion in Q2 2025, reflecting an increase of 13.69%. The NAV of Bahrain domiciled CIUs decreased from US $4.428 billion in Q2 2024 to US $4.343 billion in Q2 2025, reflecting a decrease of 1.92%. Additionally, the NAV of overseas domiciled CIUs decreased from US $6.750 billion in Q2 2024 to US $6.572 billion in Q2 2025, reflecting a decrease of 2.64%.
