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The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged eight individuals linked with breaching laws on campaign finance on behalf of a “foreign government” – believed to be the UAE – during the 2016 presidential election. The indictment against Ahmad Khawaja, George Nader and six others were made by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on 7 November, but was only unsealed on 3 December.

National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has made an offer to buy out the other shareholders in Bahrain Islamic Bank (BISB). NBB, which is majority-owned by the government, already owns 29% of the Islamic lender; the state holds a further 29% in BISB via the Social Insurance Organisation. BISB shareholders are asked to accept BD0.117 in cash for each share they hold (slightly below the current trading price of BD0.120) or take NBB shares instead.

The public offer to buy a 50% stake in Boursa Kuwait Securities Company held by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) was more than 8.5 times oversubscribed by the time it closed on 1 December. It marked the final stage in the privatisation of the Kuwaiti stock exchange. In February, the CMA sold 44% of the group to a consortium of local and Greek investors.

Finance minister Nayef Al-Hajraf announced his resignation on 6 November, after being chosen as the Kuwaiti government’s nominee to be the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)’s next secretary-general. Deputy foreign minister Khaled Al-Jarallah said Kuwait hoped other members would support the nomination at the GCC’s next summit (whose date has yet to be agreed).

There are fresh concerns about the health of the Dubai real estate market, following a report from Fitch Ratings, published in September, which said banks might have to undertake further restructuring of property loans and warned that a default by a large borrower “could cause fast deterioration of asset quality at one or more banks”.Dubai property prices have dropped by about 25% since 2014, while loans to real estate and construction companies account for some 20% of bank lending in the emirate.

The planned sale of 50% of shares in Boursa Kuwait to local nationals is to go ahead before the end of the year. The Capital Market Authority (CMA) issued a statement on 1 September urging citizens to ensure their personal details held by the Public Authority for Civil Information were up to date, to ensure they can take part in the process. The Boursa privatisation is part of the government’s efforts to inject momentum into the economy, in line with its Vision 2035 strategy.

The UK agreed a last-minute settlement with Bank Mellat on 18 June, thereby avoiding a public hearing scheduled to start that day in the High Court in London. The UK government has agreed to pay the bank £1.25bn ($1.6bn) in damages.

Abu Dhabi is making a renewed effort to attract more private sector finance into its economy, setting up the Abu Dhabi Investment Office and putting new laws in place to regulate public private partnerships (PPPs). The new investment office will be responsible for increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) into the emirate, particularly in a number of priority sectors such as technology, tourism, and advanced manufacturing. As part of that it will set up a PPP Centre of Excellence to develop “attractive investment models for international and local investors”.

Bank Markazi (Central Bank of Iran) has put forward a proposal to revalue the embattled currency, removing four zeros from the rial. The idea was proposed by governor Abdonnaser Hemmati on 6 January and will require parliamentary approval. It could take up to two years to finalise and will necessitate replacing all the bank notes currently in circulation.

Kuwaiti attorney general Dherar Ali Al-Asousi has written to his counterpart in Dubai, Essam Issa Al-Humaidan, requesting his assistance is releasing $496m that has been frozen in a branch of Noor Bank since November 2017. The money belongs to Kuwaiti investment firm The Port Fund LP, whose executives have been accused in Kuwait of embezzlement.

France’s Société Générale has agreed to pay fines totalling $1.3bn to settle actions brought by the United States over its processing of transactions which broke US sanctions, including those on Iran and Cuba.The settlement covers actions by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), New York County District Attorney’s Office (DANY), the Federal Reserve and New York State Department of Financial Services. The bank has also signed deferred prosecution agreements with SDNY and DANY.

Away from the spin and razzmatazz of last month’s Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, analysts are starting to question whether the sums underlying the economic reform initiatives being pursued by Saudi Arabia really add up. McKinsey & Company, the chief architect of the Vision 2030 strategy, has previously estimated that $4trn of investment is needed to implement the sort of wide-ranging economic reforms it has suggested for the country.

What has happened to the near half billion dollars which Kuwait-based The Port Fund lodged in a Dubai branch of Noor Bank? The money represents the return on Port Fund’s investment in a logistics development in the Philippines. The funds were due to be distributed to the fund’s shareholders last year and were passing through Noor Bank in Dubai when they were frozen on 14 November 2017, apparently at the request of authorities in Kuwait who claim some Port Fund executives were trying to embezzle funds.

Abu Dhabi is pushing for further consolidation among the emirate’s banks, with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) holding merger talks with both Union National Bank and Al-Hilal Bank. All three institutions are either wholly- or majority-owned by the emirate’s government.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait said on 26 June they were preparing another round of financial support for Bahrain’s beleaguered economy. Just how much will be offered – and with what conditions – remains to be seen, but the promise alone was enough to halt a worrying slide in market confidence in the island kingdom’s finances. The news of a fresh bailout came after several days of pressure on the financial markets.