Manama: The Central Bank of Bahrain's (CBB) Board of Directors convened for its third meeting of 2025, chaired by Hassan Khalifa Al Jalahma. The board assessed various agenda items and received updates from CBB Governor Khalid Humaidan on significant developments aligned with the CBB's strategic priorities. The focus included reviews of licensing activities, policy updates, and achievements within the year.
According to Bahrain News Agency, the board also examined key monetary and banking indicators up to April 2025. The money supply saw an increase of BD5.2 billion, reaching BD16.8 billion by the end of April 2025, compared to the previous year. Retail banks experienced a rise in total private deposits to approximately BD0.5 billion, marking a 3.5% increase from April 2024. The outstanding balance of loans and credit facilities extended to resident economic sectors rose to BD12.4 billion, showing a 1.8% increase compared to the prior year, with the Business and Personal Sectors accounting for 43.3% and 48.9% of total loans, respectively. Additionally, the banking system's balance sheet increased by 2.3%, reaching $244.7 billion by the end of April 2025.
Point of Sales (POS) data indicated substantial growth, with 21.5 million transactions in April 2025, a 28.5% increase from the same month in 2024. The total value of POS transactions also rose by 17.3%, totalling BD428.2 million, with contactless transactions making up a significant portion.
The banking sector's capital adequacy ratio showed a slight decrease to 20.6% in Q1 2025 from 22.2% in Q1 2024. Conventional retail banks had a capital adequacy ratio of 29.4%, while conventional wholesale banks stood at 16.6%. Islamic retail and wholesale banks reported 23.8% and 21.1%, respectively, for Q1 2025.
The total number of registered Collective Investment Undertakings (CIUs) increased to 1737 as of March 2025 from 1699 in March 2024. However, the net asset value (NAV) of the CIUs decreased by 2.4%, from US$11.551 billion in Q1 2024 to US$11.269 billion in Q1 2025. Bahrain-domiciled CIUs saw a 3.8% decrease in NAV, while overseas domiciled CIUs experienced a 1.5% decrease. Conversely, Shari'a-compliant CIUs experienced a 15% increase in NAV, rising from US$1.743 billion in Q1 2024 to US$2.004 billion in Q1 2025.