Expats beware: Consolidation is coming to Qatar's banks

On the face of it, Qatar is one of the places to be for bankers in the GCC – pay is rising exponentially for local candidates, and even expats are able to secure up 20-30% more working there than the Dubai.

In the long term, hopes are pinned on a raft of project finance work related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In the short term, however, there could be a threat to employment prospects within local institutions – consolidation.

There are, quite simply, too many banks in Qatar, suggests George Nasra, managing director of International Bank of Qatar in an interview with Arabian Business.

"We believe that the country is overbanked…There are around 18 banks, with the local banks, Islamic banks and the foreign banks, for a total population of 1.7m," he said. "We estimate that the bankable population is around 600,000, so that is why we think the country is overbanked. I think it is time for consolidation basically."

Inevitably, any mergers or acquisitions are followed by a period of downsizing (see Emirates NBD's acquisition of Dubai Bank as a case in point). However, considering the effort that Qatari banks have put into recruiting and retaining locals, any redundancies are likely to affect expat employees.