Standard & Poors (S&P) is reviewing the credit ratings of 50 banks in the MENA region under a new set of criteria, Timucin Engin, the rating agency's associate director of financial institutions told Reuters. Half of these banks operate in the GCC region. Engin expects any changes to MENA banks ratings to be announced by the end of 2011. The move is expected to result in higher funding costs for lenders in the region. The revamp of S&P ratings criteria in late November 2011 resulted in ratings cut on 15 global banks mostly in Europe and the US. |
Bahrain Middle East Bank made a USD 13mn full repayment of a loan obligation including a USD 1.4mn interest payment taking total repayments by the troubled lender to USD 43mn, the bank said in ... more
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the UAE's largest lender by market value, initiated a USD 17mn fifteen-year Uridashi bond, MENA's first ever, allowing the bank to directly access Japanese ... more
The GCC economies remain insulated from economic and political turbulence in the MENA region and globally but structural challenges continue to constrain sovereign ratings, ratings agency ... more