Meanings of arab banks in English

A dozen Arab banks with branches here have also been badly hurt.

Gulf Arab banks have already tightened lending as interbank borrowing costs mount, in a move expected to erode profits.

Sheikh Salem also told the paper Gulf Arab banks should consider mergers to help fend off competition from larger international banks.

New areas of interest include infrastructure, consumer industries and even entertainment, said Yousif, who also heads regional banking body the Union of Arab Banks.

Change is very hard and bumpy, said Adnan Ahmed Yousef, president of the Union of Arab Banks and chief executive of Bahrain-based Albaraka Banking Group.

Forty percent of Arab banks said U.S. lenders were most prone to withdraw from correspondent banking relationships with them, followed by British and German banks.

Standard & Poor's has estimated that 30 Gulf Arab banks had a combined exposure of $9.6 billion to the two Saudi firms.