Strong Competition Between Bank Dhofar and «CIB» to Break Into the Top 50 Arab Lending Banks by the End of 2025

Amid intensifying competition within «First Bank» ranking of the Top 100 Lending Banks in the Arab World by the end of 2025, a clear rivalry has emerged between Bank Dhofar and the Commercial International Bank-Egypt CIB, in a battle centered around moving closer to the middle tier of the ranking, particularly the 50th position.

According to the ranking, Bank Dhofar came in 50th place with a loan portfolio totaling $11.40 billion, while CIB ranked 51st with loans amounting to $11.27 billion. This reflects a remarkable convergence in the size of the two banks’ credit portfolios and further intensifies the competition between them.

Over the period from 2020 to 2025, the data revealed a close and highly volatile competition between Bank Dhofar and CIB, within a clear race to strengthen their lending portfolios, amid notable fluctuations in the gap between the two banks from one year to another.

Bank Dhofar started 2020 ahead, with a loan portfolio of approximately $8.80 billion, compared to $7.60 billion for CIB, creating a gap of more than $1.2 billion in its favor and reflecting an initial advantage in lending activity.

However, the landscape shifted notably in 2021, as CIB succeeded in overtaking Bank Dhofar after recording loans of approximately $9.23 billion, compared to $9.02 billion for Bank Dhofar. This reversed the gap in favor of CIB by around $211 million only, marking one of the closest points between the two banks.

At the beginning of 2022, Bank Dhofar regained the lead once again after its loan portfolio rose to $9.32 billion, compared to $7.90 billion for CIB, widening the gap again in favor of Bank Dhofar to approximately $1.42 billion. This reflected a relative slowdown in CIB’s lending performance compared to the previous year.

During 2023 and 2024, the gap continued to widen gradually in favor of Bank Dhofar, as its loan portfolio kept growing to $10.37 billion and then $10.73 billion, while CIB’s portfolio declined to $7.59 billion and then $6.89 billion. As a result, the gap reached its highest level in 2024 at around $3.84 billion.

However, 2025 brought a major shift in the course of the competition, as CIB recorded a strong jump in its loan portfolio to $11.27 billion, moving very close to Bank Dhofar, which posted $11.39 billion. Consequently, the gap narrowed sharply to only around $124 million, signaling a significant convergence in the competitive positions of the two banks.

In light of this, CIB could be expected to maintain momentum in the near term, especially after the strong jump it achieved in 2025, which provided a clear boost to its ranking position. Nevertheless, this progress remains dependent on the bank’s ability to sustain this performance level, while Bank Dhofar continues on its relatively stable trajectory.

Overall, the data reflects that competition between the two banks has been far from stable, passing through phases of leadership exchange as well as sharp expansions and contractions in the gap between them, eventually reaching a state of intense convergence by the end of 2025.

This suggests that the battle for superiority remains open and will largely depend on future growth dynamics and each bank’s ability to strengthen the pace of expansion in its lending portfolio.