GCC needs post-crisis bank plan

Gulf oil producers need to co-ordinate their efforts to devise a new common banking policy to enable national banks to face any fresh crisis in the global financial system, according to a semi-official report.

Banks in the GCC should learn lessons from the latest global economic turmoil and stick to known investment standards and shun derivatives and other high risk instruments, said the report by the state-controlled Emirates Industrial Bank (EIB).

In its monthly economic bulletin, the EIB said the GCC banks are on their way to recovery after they were jolted by the global crisis in the fourth quarter, adding that this was reflected in their performance in the second quarter of 2009.