Remember when the biggest controversy in Gulf dealings with the West was the role of sovereign wealth funds?
In the wake of the financial crisis, it now seems quaint to consider that just last summer western banks could afford to be picky about who was giving them money. The moneybags from the Gulf, awash with revenue from oil at nearly $150 a barrel, were seen as sinister forces for political interference, or worse as shadowy front-organisations for extremists. That view is now “so August”, as they say in New York.
Hard up American and European banks will accept investment from virtually anybody. (One tongue-in-cheek suggestion recently was that a consortium of Somali pirates had taken advice on an equity investment in Citigroup, before turning down the proposal on grounds of risk.)
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