CONTENTS
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND……………………………….………………..........3
CENTRAL BANK OF JORDAN…………………………….….…...………4
THE JORDANIAN ECONOMY……………... …........................…….………..........5
INTERNATIONAL RATING AGENCIES……….……………………. ..…...6
SECTOR PERFORMANCE………………….…….…………..…………….……….8
ASSETS…………….……………………….…….………….8
DEPOSITS…………………….……….……………………10
PROFITABILITY…………….……….…..…...……………..10
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BANKING SECTOR ON THE ASE.…………..……….…….………….…...…....11
OUTLOOK……….…………………………………………….………..12
BANKS' PROFILES…………………………………………….………..14
SELECTED RATIOS AND FIGURES…………………….……….………..30
SCORECARDS...….…………………………………………….………..32

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Jordan's banking sector has historically moved from strengh to strengh, posting
impressive results along the way despite political and economical instability
affecting the region. This growth was a consequence of effective and efficient
management practices and a well regulated opertaing enviroment spearheaded by
the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ).
Banking in Jordan traces back to the early 1900's with the establishment of the
"Ottoman Bank" in 1925. Soon after, the largest commercial Palestinian bank
"The Arab Bank" was relocated to Amman as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli
war and a number of local and foreign banks subsequently started their
operations in Jordan.
Benefiting from favorable economic conditions, the banking sector has
undergone major progress, as deposits and loans more than doubled between the
mid-1970's and the early 1980's. During the same period the number of financial
institutions tripled. The government encouraged the expansion of banking
services as a key driver to its economic development policy and took a number of
measures to enhance it, beginning with the deregulation of interest rates in 1988,
which helped attract deposits from other Arab nations and remittances of many
Jordanians who had never used banks before. By the mid-1980's, Jordan was the
only Arab country in which the value of banks' assets exceeded its GDP.
In the past decade, the numbers posted by the sector were no less than
impressive; total commercial bank assets rose from JD12.9 billion in 2000 to
JD30.1 billion until the end of August 2008 while total deposits increased from
about JD8.2 billion to JD16.0 billion during the same period.
The Jordanian banking sector is considered overbanked as it currently consists of
24 banks including 16 locally licensed ones, three of which are Islamic, serving a
population of 5.8 million. By the end of 2007, the top 3 banks in Jordan controled
76.9% of total customer deposits while holding 71.6% of total sector assets,
therefore, and in an effort to force banks towards further consolidation, the CBJ
raised the minimum capital requirements for banks to JD40 million in 2004.
However, the ease in which banks where able to raise new capital was a
stumbling block in the path to a less fragmented banking sector, for that reason
the CBJ is considering raising the minimum capital requirement to JD100 million
in upcoming years.