Manama: Mahmood Rafique, Editor: The balance sheet of the banking system (retail banks and wholesale sector banks) increased to $254 billion at the end of April 2026, an increase of 3.8% compared to the end April of 2025.
This came as the Central Bank of Bahrain’s (CBB) board of directors held its second meeting for the year 2026, chaired Hassan Khalifa Al Jalahma, wherein the board reviewed the items on the agenda, the Governor Khalid Humaidan presented the latest developments regarding the CBB’s key priorities, as well as key highlights of loan deferral and liquidity support program launched by CBB.
The Board also reviewed the CBB’s performance report and other key achievements during the period under review this year, including the Currency Swap Agreement signed with the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. In addition, the Board presented the CBB’s Artificial Intelligence strategy.
The Board also reviewed key monetary and banking indicators for the period up to April 2026 including the money supply, which increased by BD 1.4 billion to reach BD 18.1 billion at the end of April 2026, compared to the same period in 2025. As for retail banks, total private deposits increased to reach BD 14.7 billion at the end of April 2026, an increase of 8.8% compared to the end of April 2025. The outstanding balance of total loans and credit facilities extended to resident economic sectors increased to BD 13.4 billion at the end of April 2026, an increase of 8.5% compared April 2025, with the Business Sector accounting for 40.8% and the Personal Sector at 46.6% of total loans and credit facilities.
Point of Sales (POS) data for the period January 2026 to April 2026 totaled 82.3 million transactions (75.5% of which were contactless), an increase of 1.0% compared to the same period in 2025. The total value of POS transactions for the period January 2026 to April 2026 totaled BD 1.5 billion (52.3% of which were contactless), a decrease of 8.1% compared to the same period in 2025.
The banking sector’s capital adequacy ratio reached 20.8% in Q1 2026 compared with 20.6% in Q1 2025. The capital adequacy ratio for the various banking sectors was 25.2% for conventional retail banks, 17.4% for conventional wholesale banks, 25.7% for Islamic retail banks, and 17.3% for Islamic wholesale banks in Q1 2026.
The total number of registered Collective Investment Undertakings (CIUs) as of March 2026 stood at 1747 CIUs, compared to 1737 CIUs as of March 2025, reflecting an increase of 0.58%. The net asset value (NAV) of the CIUs stood at US $10.929 billion in Q1 2026. The NAV of Shari’a-compliant CIUs increased from US $2.004 billion in Q1 2025 to US $2.498 billion in Q1 2026, reflecting an increase of 24.65%.
