The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which includes 28 countries and has a population of 357.3 million (World Bank, 2014), is developing very rapidly and acquiring increasing importance in the global economy. Geographically, it is the bridge connecting Europe and Asia, and it is one of the world’s richest regions in terms of resources, since it includes the oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It is also home to the world’s largest Islamic banks (World Bank, 2013), many of which have a global role, serving the Muslim as well as other communities around the world. Globalisation and the reduction of barriers have allowed foreign banks to enter this region, which has led to greater efficiency and competition (Jeon et al., 2011; Cull et al., 2010; Claessens et al., 2003). Banks benefit from the competitive advantage associated with the new markets they enter (Claessens et al., 2003), but they also contribute to transmitting financial shocks (Claessens et al., 2011). Financial crises can have different effects on domestic as opposed to foreign banks (Ivanisha & Scharfstein, 2010). For instance, in the case of the 1997-8 Asian crisis the former were affected more than the latter in that region (Detragiache et al., 2006; Jeon et al., 2005). However, there is limited evidence concerning the MENA region. The existing papers either focus on individual countries, such as Egypt (Omran, 2007), or consider efficiency and banking performance in the whole region (Olson et al., 2011) and the possible impact of different types of ownership (Fazari et al., 2011), but none of them analyse the effects of the global financial crisis on the performance of banks in the MENA region as a whole.