Bahrain · Financial institution
Arab Banking Corporation BSC
Legal name in the LEI recordالمؤسسة العربيه المصرفيه ش.م.ب
Arab Banking Corporation (B.S.C.), which trades as Bank ABC, is a Bahraini shareholding company headquartered in Manama. It was incorporated by Amiri decree in 1980 and holds a conventional wholesale banking licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain. The Central Bank of Libya holds 59.37% and the Kuwait Investment Authority 29.69%, and the shares are listed on Bahrain Bourse. The bank provides trade finance, treasury, project and structured finance, syndications, corporate banking and Islamic banking, and it runs the mobile-only retail bank ila Bank.
Licences and registrations
Matched by LEI on the 22 tracked registers
None matched by LEI in the 22 tracked registers.
- The tracked registers cover payment, e-money, crypto and money-service firms in 37 countries. Bank licences from national supervisors are not tracked.
Swift network
Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory
- BIC
- ABCOBHBMXXX head office
- Connection to Swift
- Connected to SwiftThis BIC is registered as a live address on the Swift network. The institution sends and receives Swift messages under ABCOBHBM directly.
- Swift GPI
- Live member
- Payment schemes and systems
- No entry in the EPC registers, the ECB T2 and TIPS lists or the SIX Bank Master cites this BIC
- Branch codes
- None: head-office BIC only
- BIC first registered
- 1987-11-16
- Last updated
- 2024-07-05
Overview
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
Employees
Not published
Ownership
State-owned
Ticker ABC
Institution type
Commercial bank
Trades as Bank ABC
- Ownership
- The Central Bank of Libya holds 59.37% and the Kuwait Investment Authority 29.69%, and other shareholders hold 10.94%.
- Direct parent
- Central Bank of Libya, Libya 59.37%
- Major shareholder
- Kuwait Investment Authority 29.69% · 31 Dec 2025
- Stock listing
- Bahrain Bourse ABC
- Head office
- Bank ABC Tower, Building 152, Road 1703, Block 317, Diplomatic Area, PO Box 5698, Manama, Bahrain
- Company register
- CR 10299, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Kingdom of Bahrain
Business lines
The bank focuses on international wholesale banking and treasury, and it offers retail and digital banking in the MENA region through ila Bank and its subsidiaries.
Online
- Websites & references
- bank-abc.com ↗
ilabank.com ↗ ila Bank, the bank's digital retail banking unit
digital.bank-abc.com ↗ ABC Digital online banking portal
Wikipedia ↗ - Official social accounts
- LinkedIn ↗ · X ↗ · Facebook ↗ · YouTube ↗ · Flickr ↗ · Spotify (podcast) ↗ · Apple Podcasts ↗
Sources · 12 pages consulted
- bahrainbourse.com/NewAttachments/13082026074549/13082026074549_File1.pdf
- bank-abc.com/ar/ShareholderRelations/Annual%20Reports/Annual%20Report%202025.pdf
- bank-abc.com/en/AboutABC/Pages/Fact-Sheet.aspx
- bank-abc.com/en/aboutabc/management/pages/directors.aspx
- bank-abc.com/en/AboutABC/Management/senior-management
- bank-abc.com/en/ShareholderRelations/shareholder-info
- bahrainbourse.com/sysimages/majorshareholder/ABC_MajorShareholder_11479827.pdf
- bank-abc.com/en/Media%20Relations/PressRelease/paul-jennings-group-ceo
- bank-abc.com/en/Media%20Relations/PressRelease/bank-abc-announces-retirement-of-group-ceo
- bank-abc.com/en/Media%20Relations/PressRelease
- marketscreener.com/news/arab-banking-corporation-b-s-c-appoints-suresh-padmanabhan-as-acting-group-chief-fin
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Banking_Corporation
Leadership
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Chief executive
-
Paul Jennings
Group Chief Executive Officer
- Chair
- Naji Belgasem Chairman
- Chief financial officer
- Suresh Padmanabhan Acting Group Chief Financial Officer
- Executive
- Abdulaziz Fahad Alhudaib Deputy Chairman
Supervisors & regulators
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Bahrain
- Central Bank of Bahrain Central bankPrudential supervisorAML supervisor
Recent events
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
-
Leadership
Paul Jennings became Group Chief Executive Officer on 5 August 2026 after approval by the Board and the Central Bank of Bahrain.
bank-abc.com ↗ -
Leadership
The bank appointed Suresh Padmanabhan as Acting Group Chief Financial Officer from 1 March 2026.
marketscreener.com ↗ -
Leadership
The Board appointed Brendon Hopkins as Acting Group CEO on 1 February 2026, after Sael Al Waary retired on 31 January 2026.
bank-abc.com ↗ -
Other
The bank issued USD 200 million of perpetual Additional Tier 1 securities to its ultimate parent, the Central Bank of Libya.
bank-abc.com ↗ -
Leadership
Shareholders elected a new Board on 16 March 2025, and Naji Belgasem succeeded Saddek Omar El Kaber as Chairman.
bank-abc.com ↗
Compliance-relevant events of the last three years, newest first: fines and enforcement, investigations, incidents, leadership changes, mergers and licence changes. Each links to its source.
Identifiers
Head-office record
- BIC
- ABCOBHBMXXX
- How the BIC breaks down
- ABCOBank
- BHCountry · Bahrain
- BMLocation
- XXXBranch · head office
- Branch description
- Not recorded in the directory
- LEI
- 213800NCSKH968YFDB88
- LEI record
- View on GLEIF ↗
- How the LEI was matched
- BIC: Mapped to this BIC in the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI relationship file.
Profile
- Type
- Financial institutionClassified as a financial institution in Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory, with no licence on a tracked register. This includes banks that neither the ECB nor the FSB lists, as well as brokers, fund managers, insurers and market infrastructure.
- Regulation
- Not on a tracked registerNo licence or registration was found for this entity on the registers the directory tracks, or on the ECB and FSB bank lists. Most banks are licensed by national supervisors whose registers are not tracked yet. This does not mean that the institution is unregulated.
- Register licences
- None matched by LEI in the 22 tracked registersThe tracked registers cover payment, e-money, crypto and money-service firms in 37 countries. Bank licences from national supervisors are not tracked.
- Country · region
- Bahrain · Middle East & North Africa
- Trading venues (MIC)
- No MIC registered under this LEI list of 2026-09-17
- OFAC sanctions
- No listing cites this BIC
- EU sanctions
- No listing matched this BIC or its LEI
- Country sanctions
- No country programme
Types come from Swift’s BIC classification, the licences on the 22 tracked registers, and the ECB and FSB bank lists. Most banks outside the euro area appear as financial institutions, because their supervisors’ registers are not tracked yet.
No licence or registration was found for this entity on the 22 registers the directory tracks, or on the ECB and FSB bank lists. Most banks are licensed by national supervisors whose registers are not tracked yet. This does not mean that the institution is unregulated.
Ownership and group
GLEIF relationship records
The Arab Banking Corporation B S C group has 8 institutions in the directory, in 8 countries: all hold a BIC.
Including Arab Banking Corporation SA Frankfurt Branch, Arab Banking Corporation SA, Arab Banking Corporation SA Milan Branch, Abc International Bank PLC, Arab Banking Corporation (B.S.C.), Singapore Branch.
See the Arab Banking Corporation B S C group →Group membership follows the accounting-consolidation relationships reported to GLEIF. It does not show ownership shares or control.
Addresses
- Registered address
- ABC TOWER BUILDING 152 FLOOR 4 DIPLOMATIC AREA MANAMA BAHRAIN
- Operational address
- ABC TOWER BUILDING BLOCK 317 FLOOR 4 152 ROAD 1703 MANAMA MANAMA POB 5698 BAHRAIN
ISO 20022 identification
As an agent in a Swift cross-border payment message (CBPR+)
A CBPR+ message identifies this institution by its BIC, and may add its LEI or a clearing code. CBPR+ does not allow a name and postal address next to a BIC.
- Identified by
- BIC, with its LEI
- Roles in CBPR+
- Any agent, including the instructing and instructed agents
CBPR+
For cross-border payments on Swift: the BIC, with the LEI and clearing code where known
<FinInstnId>
<BICFI>ABCOBHBMXXX</BICFI>
<LEI>213800NCSKH968YFDB88</LEI>
</FinInstnId>Full record
Every ISO 20022 element the directory holds. Base ISO 20022 allows them together. CBPR+ does not allow a name and address next to a BIC
<FinInstnId>
<BICFI>ABCOBHBMXXX</BICFI>
<LEI>213800NCSKH968YFDB88</LEI>
<Nm>ARAB BANKING CORPORATION BSC</Nm>
<PstlAdr>
<TwnNm>MANAMA</TwnNm>
<Ctry>BH</Ctry>
<AdrLine>ABC TOWER BUILDING 152 FLOOR 4 DIPLOMATIC AREA MANAMA</AdrLine>
</PstlAdr>
</FinInstnId>The BIC, name and address are as published in Swift’s BIC directory. The LEI comes from the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI file. Check them against your own records before use.
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Sources & method
Every value comes from a public source, such as Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory, GLEIF or the OFAC and EU sanctions lists. Most sources are matched on a BIC or an LEI, not on a name.
Swift GPI membership is matched on names and is indicative. A missing sanctions match does not mean that no listing applies. Always screen against the official lists.
The sanctions facts on this page cover the BIC and its LEI only.
An institution is one entry in the directory: a BIC8 in Swift’s directory, or a firm on a tracked register that holds no BIC. Licences held by an institution with a BIC are shown on its page.
Read the methodology →Credits for this page
- Ownership and group—GLEIF Level 2 relationship records (accounting consolidation), matched by LEI.
- Overview, leadership, regulators and events—researched per institution by an AI model with web search, from the institution's own website and reports, regulators, company registers and news. Figures, people and events link to their source, and each card shows the research date. AI research can be wrong or out of date, so check key facts at the source.
- Images—logos and photos from Wikimedia Commons (credited with their author and licence) or from the institution's own website, where Wikimedia has none. Elucidate keeps a copy of each; the links lead to the source and the original image. Logo: bank-abc.com (official website) · original; Paul Jennings: bank-abc.com (official website) · original.
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