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The Saudi-Spanish Al Shoula consortium, which last year won the contract to build the $8.5bn high-speed Mecca to Medina railway, announced on 2 July that six banks had agreed to provide a $811m loan facility.

Shareholders at Bahrain-based Islamic banks Capivest, Elaf Bank and Capital Management House will vote on a proposed merger this month.

UAE market regulator the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) has drafted new regulations intended to increase transparency in takeover deals.

Qatar National Bank Group (QNB Group) has bought 49% of the Bank of Commerce and Development (BCD), a leading Libyan private bank. 

Kuwait has named 37-year-old Mohammad Yusif Al-Hashel as governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait. Hashel has been acting governor since Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah – who had been in the position for 25 years – resigned on 13 February, apparently because of objections to a rapid rise in government spending (GSN 918/8).

A series of probes has exposed major irregularities at Bank Alkhair, prompting a criminal case and allegations of serious regulation violations, but the region’s business elites appear resilient

As increasingly punitive sanctions are imposed on transactions involving Iran and western war drums beat louder over its nuclear programme, there are ever decreasing avenues for Tehran to finance trade flows; Iran is likely relying on cash deals, trade diversion and bartering arrangements

A British consultant has been studying Iranian bank data and concludes that the 20 state and privately owned banks are rather less solvent than their profits and asset reporting might suggest

The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) is consulting banking executives on a draft regulatory framework for its new Islamic finance sector, due to open in 2012 after years of resistance.

Risk perceptions and, consequently, trade financing margins have changed markedly during 2011, the most volatile year in recent Middle East history, according to trade finance market participants.

Saudi officials, including General Authority of Civil Aviation president Faisal Al-Sugair and Najran governor Prince Mishaal Bin Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz, have visited the new SR400m ($106.6m) Najran regional airport where Saudi Arabian Airlines will shift its operations on 18 September.

Stormy weather forecast for Dubai banks, US and Eurozone crises shake GCC bond market, Sound fundamentals, Jadwa forecasts long-term fiscal problems

National dialogue aiming to resolve the chasms exposed by Bahrain’s ‘Spring’ started on 5 July with policy debates under four broad headings: politics, society, economy and rights. The recommendations of this four-week dialogue will be processed by the bi-cameral legislature, the government and the King.

Increased sanctions and political unrest are causing banks and trading firms to back away from markets such as Syria, Yemen and Iran, although Iraq is starting to regain momentum

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on 31 May issued an industry report card, Banks in the Gulf are on the way to recovery, but has the dust settled? projecting relatively positive prospects for most Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) banks. It said many were “continu[ing] to show resilience or even signs of a gradual improvement”.