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Elements of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)’s economic policy have been viewed as visionary by boosters in the kingdom and abroad. These include a huge investment in ‘disruptive’ technology companies based on the US west coast. Institutional Investor (II), a monthly read for investment bankers and hedge funds, described MBS’s decision to invest in cutting-edge digital companies, as signalled by the Public Investment Fund (PIF)’s $3.5bn investment in San Francisco-based taxi app Uber Technologies, as “a rare embrace of modernity for deeply conservative Saudi Arabia”.

Fitch Ratings has poured cold water on the idea that the Gulf may be on the cusp of a surge in bank mergers. Over recent months there have been a series of deals, including National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank merging to create First Abu Dhabi Bank, and Qatar’s Masraf Al Rayan, Barwa Bank and International Bank of Qatar holding talks for a three-way merger. Saudi Arabia’s Alawwal Bank and SABB announced last month they were discussing a merger.

An attempt by a Dubai-based British property developer to claim $2bn in damages from Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has failed in the UK High Court. Plantation Holdings won the main legal points over which it had sued DIB, but secured only nominal damages and was required to pay costs. Judge Mr Justice Pickens agreed that DIB had unlawfully broken its contract with Plantation in April 2008, but said the developer had not suffered any recoverable loss.

The Equate joint venture – 42.5% held by each of state-owned Petrochemical Industries Company and US giant Dow Chemical, with the local Boubyan (9%) and Qurain (6%) – has raised $500m from a debut sukuk. The first Sharia-compliant bond issue to be approved by the Capital Market Authority under new legislation was seven times over- subscribed with an order book of $3.7bn. The seven-year issue matures in February 2024. Global co-ordinators were Citigroup, JPMorgan, HSBC, NBK Capital and KFH Capital. More borrowing is expected as Equate rolls out its development programme.

The World Bank Group has approved a total of $450m in two emergency support grants for Yemen. The grants from the bank’s International Development Association fund, which is targeted at the world’s poorest countries, will finance two nationwide projects to provide vulnerable women and children with access to essential services including health and nutrition.

Judgement is expected in early 2017 in a $2bn case brought in the UK’s High Court against Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) by Plantation Holdings, a Dubai-based real estate company owned by British property developer Arthur Fitzwilliam. The hearings started in October and concluded in mid-December. If successful, the claim will embarrass DIB not just because of the heavy financial cost, but also because it would implicitly confirm damaging allegations that the bank used state power for business advantage.

The Iranian embassy in London – which reopened in August 2015 after a gap of four years – has been unable to open a local bank account, in the latest evidence of UK banks’ continued unwillingness to deal with Iran, despite the lifting of most sanctions on the country in January 2016. Iranian ambassador Hamid Baeidinejad has been voicing his frustration about the situation. Baeidinejad told a conference in London on 2 November that the lack of a bank account was “really very strange… not explainable at all”. It was often the first topic his colleagues in Tehran raised when he spoke to them, added the ambassador, who took up his post in September.

There were further signs of turbulence in Saudi policy-making when King Salman Bin Abdelaziz sacked finance minister Dr Ibrahim Bin Abdelaziz Al-Assaf on 31 October. Long-serving Al-Assaf was replaced with Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, who as Capital Market Authority chairman has pushed reforms to open up the stock market. Al-Assaf – one of the last remaining senior figures from the late King Abdullah’s government – stays on in cabinet as a minister of state.

Falcon Private Bank, a boutique Swiss bank owned by Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments, has lost its licence in Singapore and been fined $5.5m by the authorities in Singapore and Switzerland, amid heavy criticism of its role in the scandal involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the loss of the bank’s licence and a S$4.3m ($3.1m) fine on 11 October, citing Falcon Bank’s “serious failures in anti-money laundering controls and improper conduct by senior management” in relation to transactions associated with 1MDB.

Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi are expected to dip into their pockets once again to offer financial support to Egypt, so that Cairo can secure a three-year, $12bn programme of aid from the International Monetary Fund. The funding package, agreed with the IMF on 11 August, it is contingent on Egypt securing a further $5bn-6bn in loans from bilateral partners. Egyptian finance minister Amr El Garhy told an investors conference in London on 8 September,: “We’re talking to everybody and we should assume it will take a very few weeks”.

Ghazi Abu Nahl, a Palestinian-born businessman with a prominent position in the Gulf insurance industry, has taken to the Dubai courts to sue accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche (Middle East) and its managing partner Joseph El Fadl for their role in the auditing of the now defunct Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB). LCB was accused by the US Treasury Department in February 2011 of money laundering on behalf of drugs traffickers and providing financial support to Lebanese Hizbollah.

Alubaf Arab International Bank is facing a multi-million dollar pay-out, after losing a case at the High Court in London involving an aircraft financing deal with Bahamas-incorporated Novus Aviation Ltd.The case dates back to March 2013, when Bahrain-based Alubaf contacted Novus saying it was interested in aircraft acquisition and financing deals. After discussing a couple of possible transactions, Alubaf – which is majority owned by Libyan Foreign Bank (LBF) – agreed to join a deal for an Airbus A330-300 to be delivered to Malaysian Airlines in July 2013.

Prince Khalid Bin Alwaleed’s KBW Investments has acquired a majority stake in Dubai-based Grayscale Interiors, which does high end interior fit-outs. Prince Khalid has a focus on construction and technology and in 2015 was appointed chairman of the Saudi Green Building Forum. The prince – who describes himself as a “healthy living advocate, tech fanatic (aka geek), vegan, and animal lover” – was born in California in 1978 to the billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal; he has interests in more than 20 companies. He is married to Munira Bint Ibrahim Al-Assaf, daughter of finance minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf.

The deal for India to invest $500m in the development of Chabahar port, signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran which began on 22 May, is a useful fillip to President Hassan Rouhani’s efforts to show the nuclear deal, which came into effect in January, can deliver real benefits to the economy. It promotes a project in Iran’s south-east which will compete with Pakistan’s Gwadar port scheme across the border, which has attracted Saudi as well as Chinese support.

Iran’s Bank Mellat has won a partial victory in the Court of Appeal in London, after it decided on 10 May not to set a limit on the damages the bank can seek as a result of sanctions unlawfully imposed on it. In June 2013, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that sanctions placed on the bank in 2009 were irrational and unlawful. Bank Mellat is pursuing $4bn of damages from the UK Treasury, mostly for loss of future income.