December has been a busy month in Qatar as it hosted the FIFA World Cup 2022 and its festivities. As expected, business in Qatar slowed down during this period. While we moved toward the end of the year, we anticipated that banking activity in Qatar will slow down as the FIFA World Cup 2022 continued, and as the country approached the National Day holidays.
At the end of November 2022, the Qatar Stock Exchange Islamic Index outperformed other indices in the main market, with the Total Return Index rising by 1.07%, the All Share Index rising by 1.07% and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.13%. Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) was among the main market participants that benefited from this.
QIB launched the Murabahah-based Easy Payment Plan (EPP) on its QIB mobile banking application. The EPP will allow certain credit card holders to convert transactions above QAR5,000 (US$1,363.94) into installments, providing them with more financial flexibility. QIB has over 200 features in its mobile banking application, and plans to continue creating and offering digital solutions to its clients.
QIB’s general manager, D Anand, commented on the launch, saying that:“We are delighted to introduce a new feature on QIB’s award-winning mobile app offering our customers more convenience to spend anywhere and pay back in easy installments. The new feature comes as part of the bank’s digital strategy to simplify its customers’ payment obligations transparently through the mobile app.”
According to reports by Kamco Invest, Qatar is expected to realize a profit of US$9 billion and revenue of US$17 billion from the FIFA World Cup 2022. Additionally, Kamco Invest says that the Qatari tourism sector is expected to benefit greatly from the World Cup, representing nearly 12% of the GDP by 2030. Kamco further noted that: “It is usually a sign of a country’s confidence and planned future ambitions when it seeks to host an international sports competition.”
The chairman of Qatar Chamber announced that there are over 150 large-scale projects planned after 2022, including, among other things, infrastructure projects and construction of hospitals and schools. We expect the Islamic banking industry to be among the beneficiaries of the post-World Cup economy.
Amjad Hussain is a partner at K&L Gates. He can be contacted at [email protected].