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Gulf Co-operation Council ministers held a virtual meeting with the UK’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly on 22 February to discuss the prospects for expanding trade links. The GCC side was chaired by Bahrain’s foreign affairs minister Abdullatif Bin Rashid Al-Zayani; other countries sent more junior representatives, including Omani undersecretary for diplomatic affairs Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al-Harthy and UAE minister of state for international co-operation Reem Bint Ibrahim Al-Hashemy.

National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Samba Financial Group (Samba) will adopt name Saudi National Bank following their merger, which should be concluded in H1 2021. The deal is intended to create a national banking champion with more than SR837bn ($223.2bn) in assets. It still needs final regulatory approval – which is expected without hitch – and shareholders’ approval when both banks hold extraordinary general meetings.

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay more than $130m to end a US government investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 2009-16, involving bribes paid to individuals in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to secure  contracts. Deutsche Bank admitted to the US authorities that it paid bribes of at least $1.1m to a British Virgin Islands company owned by a Saudi business development consultant who was the wife of a client.

A flurry of deals between UAE and Israeli businesses have emerged since the two governments announced their normalisation of relations. Many of the announcements have involved memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and it remains to be seen how many will be converted into meaningful commercial arrangements.

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Dubai-based Emirates NBD and Bahrain’s Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) are all in discussions to buy subsidiaries of Lebanese banks, who are in retreat as a result of the crisis in their domestic economy.

GSN understands that UK-based Xcalibur Aerospace – a drone company, which is part-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – tried to raise $500m in a fund-raising effort focused on the US west coast earlier this year. However, it is believed the effort came to an end without any funds being raised, as investors were unpersuaded about what was on offer.

Kuwait’s financial sector is reeling from a dispute between the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Kuwait Banking Association (KBA). KBA announced on 10 June that banks had been told not to pay any cash dividends to shareholders this year, to preserve liquidity. The announcement was made during trading hours on the Boursa Kuwait and caused a sharp fall. The next day the CMA announced it had cancelled the previous day’s trading, an unprecedented move which wiped out the share price falls but had serious ramifications.

Bahrain has been linked to a potential financial rescue package for McLaren Group, which runs a Formula 1 team and produces road-going supercars. On 29 June, the car group announced it had secured £150m ($187m) in funding, but did not reveal the source of the funds or say how the financing was structured. However, GSN understands it was a loan. Prior to the announcement, media reports in Bahrain and the UK had suggested National Bank of Bahrain was preparing to provide a substantial loan.

International investments: The Public Investment Fund (PIF) invested at least $7.6bn in listed companies in the United States and Europe in Q1 2020, underlining a trend among Gulf investors to seek longer-term opportunities amid the coronavirus-driven slump. US regulatory filings show the PIF bought stakes in 23 companies during Q1, with an emphasis on hospitality and leisure stocks (including the Walt Disney Company, travel website owner Booking Holdings and hotel chain Marriott International), technology companies (Cisco Systems, Facebook and IBM) and under-pressure oil majors (BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and oil sands producer Canadian Natural Resources).

Abdulhamid Saeed was appointed governor of the Central Bank of the UAE on 2 April, taking over from Mubarak Rashid Al-Mansouri, who had held the job since September 2014. Saeed is a former chief executive of First Abu Dhabi Bank and has also served on the board of Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company, Emirates Investment Authority, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Sky News Arabia.

The takeover by Oman Arab Bank of Alizz Islamic Bank looks set to go ahead, after the Central Bank of Oman gave its approval for the deal. The development was announced in a statement by Alizz to the Muscat Securities Market on 21 April. Alizz says it is now seeking further regulatory approval from the Capital Market Authority and other bodies. Alizz Islamic Bank was founded in 2013 by Sayyid Taimur Bin Assad Bin Tariq Al-Said, nephew of the new ruler Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq.

In a series of institutional and personnel changes announced on 25 February, King Salman Bin Abdelaziz ordered the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia) to be transformed into the Ministry of Investment. It will be led by Khalid Bin Abdelaziz Al-Falih, a high-profile figure who seemed to have fallen out of favour last year when the former high-flyer was stripped of his positions as chairman of Saudi Aramco and as energy, industry and mineral resources minister.

Iranian stock markets have continued to perform strongly in the opening weeks of 2020, despite the regional political tensions, extending a trend evident since March 2019.The main Tehran Stock Exchange index, the Tedpix, reached 440,199 points on 4 February, up 17% since the turn of the year and up almost 180% since early February 2019. The junior Farabourse market has also been performing well.

Supreme Political Council (SPC) president Mahdi Mashat issued a decree on 5 January launching the Houthi’s economic plan for 2020. Among this potentially significant document’s six priorities were payment of half-salaries to government employees every two months, tax exemptions for vehicles and manufacturing equipment, and a directive to establish national banks. The first phase of the plan was launched in Sanaa on 14 January by Mashat and prime minister Abdelaziz Saleh Bin Habtour.

Expectations of a potential wave of regional bank mergers were dampened in December, after two major Saudi lenders, Riyadh Bank and National Commercial Bank (NCB), called off their planned tie-up. On 16 December, the banks issued separate statements to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) saying their boards had agreed to end the preliminary discussions and wouldn’t continue studying the merger. No reason was given for the breakdown of talks. However, other deals are on the agenda: a proposed merger in Oman is showing signs of life after a year without any signs of movement and a cross-border Kuwait-Bahrain deal may also move forward.