CEO at the Standard Chartered Bank Bahrain, Hassan Jarrar said that the notion that banking industry in this part of the world continued to be insulated from the affects of the global economic crisis was not correct.
Jarrar, addressing the questions during the BAB Meet the Press, said that if anybody sneezes in the United States somebody gets cold in the GCC.
“This is quite natural as the banking business is so closely woven that it will be very hard to work in isolation, thanks to the globalisation and the shrinking business world,” he explained.
GCC banks, he said, did participated and did buy sub-prime assets and the underlining message from that crisis is to be more cautious in future.
The banking business, he said, banks do business on regular basis and lend money to each other the most commonly the overnight lending.
Jarrar didn’t agree that the sub-prime issue in the United States which triggered the global financial crisis in 2008 had no affects on the banks and businesses in this part of the world.
Referring to Standard Chartered business in Bahrain he said business lines like personal loans and motor car loans were doing fine.
The mortgage business, he added, is trying to get back on the track as the non performing loans situation which peaked in August 2011 was also getting stabilised.