Although Libya's government and state oil sector are the targets of global sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department has exempted from them a financial institution that's almost 60 percent owned by the Libyan Central Bank.
The Treasury Department on March 4 granted the Arab Banking Corporation an exemption to President Barack Obama's executive order authorizing sanctions on Libyan businesses. Last December, the Libyan central bank upped its ownership stake in that bank to 59.3 percent.
"It is business as usual at Arab Banking Corporation," the Bahrain-based bank says on its website in a bulletin published on March 6. The note states that the company is regulated in Bahrain - a U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf - and that the Kuwait Investment Authority, the overseas investment arm of the Kuwaiti government, another U.S. ally - owns a 29.6 percent stake in the bank.
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