Saudi banks need to do their bit for recovery

* username: rupertbu

The public clamour against banks and bankers is growing to a cacophony. In the West, the poor creatures are so vilified in the media that, at smart dinner parties in New York or London, bankers pretend to be estate agents, or lawyers, or even (sharp intake of breath) journalists, to escape the opprobrium that goes with their profession.

Bankers used to be just boring. Now they are the butts of abuse from Boston to Belgrade.

We do things differently in the Middle East. Here, banks in the western sense (institutions that charge you to allow them to use your money) are a relatively new idea. They are distinct from, but related to, merchant finance, which has existed as long as the region has been a commercial centre. And they were modelled on western templates, often taken over by post-colonial governments.