10 banks set up Arab bank with $400 million capital

The director of the Arab Banks Confederation, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, declared that 10 Arab banks from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Egypt have agreed to participate in setting up a bank whose capital will be $400 million for financing trade and investment operations among Arab countries, especially after signing the Free Trade Zone Agreement.

The proposal to set up this bank was submitted during the 7th Conference of Arab Businessmen and Investors which was held in Beirut last October. The bank will make about 30% of its capital available for public subscription in Arab bourses.

Abdul Aziz stated that the bank will start operations in 1998 and will try to regain estimated Arab savings of about $830 billion which are currently abroad, in order to set up investment projects and companies.

There are 258 Arab commercial banks in those countries with total balances of about $304.6 billion.