Gulf banks stronger than Western counterparts: report - Express India

Banks in Gulf oil producers are now in a better position than banks in the West given their large liquidity levels, government support and lower loan loss provisions, a Saudi bank has said in its monthly bulletin.

After two years of slackening lending activity because of the 2008 global fiscal distress and regional debt default problems, banks in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are now gradually easing curbs on domestic credit and the trend could pick up through 2012, the Saudi American Bank Group (Samba) said.

"The GCC banking sector is generally sound and well managed and compares favourably when viewed against US and European banks," it said.

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