The head of National Commercial Bank, the largest regional bank in the Gulf, called on Tuesday for the creation of a central bank for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, and the unification of banking laws and regulations for the six nation body.
Speaking at a retail banking seminar, Abdulhadi Shayif explained that: 'The GCC is moving towards a custom union by 2005 and a currency union is planned for 2010. Since these will lead towards unified monetary policies and convergence of banking laws, the regulators in the GCC states should remove non-conformity among GCC banking laws.'
He added that another compelling reason for consolidation is that as GCC banks are relatively small by global standards, they could easily be driven out by international competitors. Therefore, the NCB General Manager stated, larger pan-Gulf banks are the way forward.
According to reports in the local media, Mr Shayif also warned GCC banks not to attempt to compete with foreign banks in areas such as investment banking, but to concentrate on developing the regional market for Islamic banking.
The six countries which make up the GCC are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy & Cookies
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment