Efforts at the merger of 3 Qatari banks have called off after they were unable to reach an agreement. The three banks, Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan and conventional banks Barwa Bank and International Bank of Qatar, said in a statement they could not r each an agreement to complete the transaction. The talks have been on since December 2016. The talks could not proceed basically because the shareholders of the banks could not agree on valuations and due to customer concerns that International Bank of Qatar may be converted into an Islamic lender. Regulations in Qatar do not allow a bank to operate both types of lending. Qatar has 18 local and international commercial banks to serve a population of 2.6 million and a consolidation is very much in the offing.
