The prolonged war in Iraq, the political turmoil in Lebanon, the heightened tension between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the specter of an attack on Iran have all significantly shaken business uncertainty levels in several MENA countries. Sovereign risk – the credit risk assessment...

We investigate the performance and risk in two prominent countries in the MENA region, Egypt and Lebanon, where banks operate under market-oriented economic regimes. The study covers the 1990?s, a period that witnessed banking sector reforms towards a more efficient financial system. Noting the...

Are stock market returns mean-reverting in the region? Mean reversion in a stock market suggests that bad returns are likely to be followed by periods of good returns. By contrast, in a random walk setting, the future is a flip of a coin, regardless of the return outcomes in earlier periods. An...

The rapid proliferation of Islamic-oriented investments has placed an added urgency on better understanding their risk profile. With respect to Islamic stock market indexes, this concern is more pertinent to the extent that indexes could be subject to manipulation, and because they are often...

We analyze the role of domestic and foreign banks in Saudi Arabia during the latest financial crisis that has ravaged the world since 2007. The study is based on the growth rate in market share of the credit extended by each bank and investors’ perception about the risk exposure of this...