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Central Bank of Oman

Central Bank of Oman News

Sohar International Bank HSBC Oman merger

Sohar International Bank and HSBC Oman to merge

Sohar International Bank and HSBC Bank Oman have signed a binding merger agreement following talks that started in June 2022. All assets and liabilities of HSBC Bank Oman will be transferred to Sohar International upon the conclusion of the deal. The banks, which did not disclose the deal value, said that upon completion HSBC Oman […]

Oman’s Ahli Bank rejects merger offer from Bank Dhofar

Oman-based Ahli Bank has rejected a non-binding offer from the sultanate’s second-biggest lender Bank Dhofar for a possible merger. “The Board of Directors has studied the proposal and decided not to accept it,” Ahli Bank said in a bourse filing, without providing a reason for the board’s decision. Bank Dhofar has assets worth $11.2 billion, […]

HSBC

Central bank approves HSBC Oman and Sohar International merger

HSBC Bank Oman and Sohar International have received the Central Bank of Oman’s (CBO) approval for their merger proposal, the banks said in separate statements to the Muscat Stock Exchange. The merger is likely to be completed in the second half of 2023 following approvals from regulators and shareholders of the two banks. In previous […]

Oman and India study e-linking some payment services

The Central Bank of Oman has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India’s flagship payments processor, National Payments Corporation of India, to study the possibility of linking some payment systems between the two countries, according to Oman’s state news agency. The MoU aims at studying the possibility of connecting the unified payments interface and RuPay Card, […]

Central Bank of the UAE

Central banks go digital, bit by bit

The turmoil in cryptocurrency markets this year has been a wake-up call to investors and regulators, prompting questions about how viable many digital currencies really are. According to CoinMarketCap, the total value of cryptocurrencies has slumped from almost $3 trillion in November 2021 to less than $1 trillion in September this year.  But not all […]

Oman’s Islamic banking assets rise 9.6% to $16.1bn

Total assets of Islamic banks and windows operating in Oman jumped by 9.6 percent year-on-year to OR 6.2 billion ($16.1 billion) in June 2022, Muscat Daily reported, citing Central Bank of Oman data. Islamic banking assets account for 15.9 percent of the country’s total banking system assets. An Islamic ‘window’ when a conventional financial institution […]

How Oman has moved from protests to surplus in a year

Last June Oman was facing protests over job layoffs and poor economic conditions as the sultanate suffered from the double shock of the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in oil prices. Just 14 months later Fitch Ratings has upgraded Oman’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘BB’ from ‘BB-‘, with a stable outlook. Fitch said […]

Mobile Phone, Cell Phone, Phone

Open all hours: inside the Gulf’s banking revolution

The UAE’s first open banking platform is helping fintech and banks bring personalised services to customers, and is accelerating the regional growth of this progressive sector The Gulf has the potential to leapfrog other regions of the world, including Europe, with its adoption of open banking as bricks and mortar branches “slowly disappear”, according to […]