London/Manama, Aug. 19 -- Islamic bank mergers and acquisitions in the GCC region are likely to increase as many Islamic banks still lack the market position needed to compete with large established peers, particularly in overbanked markets such as the UAE, Fitch Ratings says.

Consolidation should ultimately be positive for the Islamic banking sector by creating larger, stronger and more efficient Islamic banks. However, banks' Issuer Default Ratings will typically be unaffected, given that most GCC bank ratings are driven by our assumption that sovereign support will be provided to banks (directly or through a parent bank), if needed.

GCC Islamic banking M&A is driven by the search for competitive advantage to access growth opportuniti...