Group History and Fact Sheet

Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) was incorporated as a Bahrain joint stock company on 17th January 1980 by Amiri degree in Kingdom of Bahrain and was issued an Offshore Banking Unit license by the Bahrain Monetary Agency on April 7, 1980 beginning its operations that month with an authorized capital of US$1,000 million.

By April 1981, an amount of US$750 million was fully paid by ABC's original three shareholders: the Ministry of Finance of Kuwait (later transferred to the Kuwait Investment Authority), the Libyan Secretariat of Treasury (whose shares were later transferred to the Central Bank of Libya) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.