The UAE enters this year’s ranking with 21 banks, accounting for 28% of the total. Jordan ranks in second place with 11 banks, followed by KSA with 10 and Qatar with 8. Kuwait enters with 7, and is followed by Oman and Lebanon with a total of 6 banks each.Bahrain and Egypt feature in the list with 4 and 2 banks, respectively. Qatar’s QNB ranks top in the banking sector followed by Oman’s Ahli Bank in second place and Masraf Al Rayan bank, also from Qatar, in third. The strongest entry from KSA was Arab National Bank in 19th place. While falling outside of the top ten, this Saudi bank achieved the highest return on equity in the banking sector with a ratio of 49%. Meanwhile, HSBC Oman, ranked in 57th place, achieved the highest growth in market value, reaching an average of 145.1% over the period 2007-2011. Adding to the UAE’s impressive performance, Invest Bank enters the list in 31st place, achieving the highest growth in earnings per share with a ratio of 1413.1%.