Arab banking recovers as states boost economy - FT.com

Arab banking recovers as states boost economy - FT.com:

"

Striding ahead: a group of Emiratis
walk past the Burj Khalifa Tower

Middle Eastern financial institutions and companies are finally shifting their outlooks from “risk-off” to “risk-on”.
The global financial crisis prompted a lull in financial activity that was then compounded by the unrest of the Arab revolutions in north Africa spilling over into the Levant and the Gulf.
But now, from investment banking to brokerage, project finance to private banking, rebounding market activity and a number of deals are starting to persuade even the most cynical financiers that the region’s worst days are behind it.
While the savagery of the Syrian civil war and the threat of outside military interference have prompted fluctuations in regional markets, for the first time in several years the political risk dynamics are shifting.
The nascent signals of a possible rapprochement between the US and Iran have even bankers dreaming of the upside of rising trade and investment flows if sanctions on the Islamic republic are dropped."

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