In 2025, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had a successful year, as banks in the region reported their assets increasing to over USD 3.9 trillion, up 11.9% compared to the previous year. According to Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, the bloc’s Secretary-General, who presented the figures at the 86th Meeting of the Committee of Central Bank Governors in Manama, bank deposits increased 10.6% year-on-year to USD 2.3 trillion, while net foreign assets held by these financial institutions climbed 10.5% to USD 842 billion, reflecting continued liquidity growth across the region’s financial system.
The balance sheet growth comes amid the backdrop of listed Gulf banks report significant, record third-quarter profits. The combined net income for the period stood at USD 16.6 billion, an 11.6% increase from a year earlier, apart from marking a third consecutive quarterly increase, said a Kamco Invest report from December 2025, as credit conditions improved across the region.
Al-Budaiwi noted, “This path has been adopted by the GCC states as a steadfast approach and an unwavering commitment in all fields, especially within the monetary and banking sectors.”
While highlighting swift transformations in the world economy against a backdrop of successive political crises, the GCC Secretary-General remarked, “This necessitated enhancing the readiness of economic and monetary policies and taking measures to address these variables and mitigate their impacts.”
Talking about the 86th Meeting of the Committee of Central Bank Governors in Manama, the meeting was chaired by Central Bank of Bahrain Governor Khalid Ebrahim Humaidan and attended by his counterparts from across the six-member bloc.
During the event, Al-Budaiwi emphasised that GCC states have proven their ability to remain resilient and overcome various crises with efficiency and competence, making it imperative to enhance the responsiveness of economic and monetary policies and implement measures to address fluctuations.
Turning to the bloc’s standing on the world stage, Al-Budaiwi asserted that member nations have solidified their position as reliable international economic partners due to the robustness of their economies, along with factors like the stability of their fiscal and monetary policies and the effectiveness of their institutional structures. All these indicators now clearly confirm the strength and resilience of the banking and monetary sectors within the member states.