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The clarity of GCC legal systems and their treatment of foreign creditors have fallen under the spotlight as two debt-laden Saudi conglomerates troubles’ percolate through into the wider trade finance and insurance communities

Lawsuits and rating downgrades have set three significant Gulf business families – Saudi Arabia’s Al-Gosaibis, Al-Saneas and the UAE’s Al-Ghurairs – against each other (GSN 855/13). Recently, the Dubai-based, Al-Ghurair-owned Mashreq Bank filed lawsuits in New York against AHAB and its subsidiary TIBC involving a failed $75m currency exchange.

The credit shadows that have fallen over the Middle East in 2009 are afflicting some of the official export credit agencies (ECAs) based in the region and further afield. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have moved to the centre of ECA scanners in the past couple of months, but it is the UAE that most preoccupies official insurers, GSN was told in a survey of regional and international market sentiment.

Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa in July wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post calling for Arab leaders to talk to Israeli media.

International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised Capinnova Investment Bank on a $20m investment in a new retail construction project in Bahrain.

Like Yemen, the militant threat in Bahrain is intimately linked to Saudi Arabia. This was underlined by recent attempts to secure the extradition of three Bahrainis being held in Saudi Arabia on terrorism charges. Bahrain’s Al-Adala group (National Justice Movement) and National Detainees Committee are demanding the release of the men. The first is Guantanamo detainee Abdullah Majid Al-Naimi, who was detained by Saudi police at the King Fahd causeway on 10 October; he is one of six Bahrainis detained at Guantanamo, a surprisingly high number given Bahrain’s tiny population.

Dealing with a growing number of returned prisoners from Guantanamo Bay is burdening an already complex process of putting terror suspects on trial, testing relationships between states and exacerbating sectarian rifts

Charismatic opposition leader Hassan Mushaima is weighing up the options for future campaigning as he continues to debate whether to join the cleric Sheikh Abdeljalil Al-Mukhdad and 1990s protest leader Abdelwahab Hussain at the head of a new Shia Islamist movement.

Published in June 2009, this map provides an overview of global Islamic finance markets. Charts and graphics include Sharia-compliant financial assets by country (Dec 2007), Takaful operators by country (2008), Leading Islamic banks by asset values (Dec 2007), and Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) inter-regional trade

List detailing sukuk transactions in 2009

With conventional bank funding drying up, sovereign and corporate issuers are tapping the Islamic bond market to fund expansion. Bahrain has just launched an issue that was eight times over-subscribed. But in the longer term, the sukuk industry’s credibility will depend on improving market transparency

GSN lists some – but not by any means all – of the key players operating in the industry

In an interview with GSN, AAOIFI secretary general Mohammed Al-Chaar talks about the Bahrain-based institution’s role, the latest developments and industry trends.

President Bashar Al-Assad issued a decree on 3 June naming General Hassan Ali Turkmani assistant vice president. The US Navy is to take over the former commercial port at Mina Salman.

In the project finance market, signals have been mixed. On the one hand, the Saudi market has been through a dour time, not least in its cancellation of the $5.5bn-$6bn Ras Al-Zour independent water and power project (IWPP) as a private sector development after the original bid winner, Malaysia’s Malakoff, failed to come up with financing and decided to withdraw.