I wonder if a large oil price value decrease could cause a banking crisis.
I notice vague long term loans and loans to BNP Paribas, Citigroup and JP Morgan. Arab banks may have significant business relationships with European and USA banks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/earningsSeason/idUSLT2518020090629
Jordan's Arab Bank says unhurt by Saudi exposure
Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:23am EDT
AMMAN, June 29 (Reuters) - Jordan's Arab Bank ARBK.AM, the country's biggest by assets, said on Monday it was exposed to Saudi Arabia's troubled groups Saad and Al Gosaibi but this would not affect its financial position.
A statement posted on the Amman bourse gave no details of what the bank said were long-term loans extended to the groups in exchange for "cash, real estate collateral, stocks and personal and institutional guarantees."
Arab Bank said the loans were extended over the course of a relationship spanning "decades" and would not harm its financial status. It did not say whether it had taken provisions against any of the loans.
"The Arab Bank does not see in the debt of the two groups what would affect the bank's financial position or its shares in the bourse," said the statement signed by the bank's chairman and CEO Abdel Hamid Shoman.
Arab Bank, one of the Middle East's major financial institutions, had been identified as a lender to the group among others including Citigroup (C.N), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), HSBC (HSBA.L), Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and JP Morgan (JPM.N), according to Reuters data.
Banks in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait are thought to have the most exposure to the Saad Group.
Saad Group, a $30 billion empire, is restructuring its debt. Earlier this month, the Saudi central bank froze the accounts of its billionaire chairman, Maan al-Sanea. [ID:nN0167288]
Bankers say the perception that Arab Bank, whose geographic diversification has helped it weather past regional turmoil, was a safe haven during the current global financial crisis, helped push deposits up 24 percent to a record $31.9 billion in Q1.
Assets rose 15 percent to $40.5 billion. Total shareholders' equity rose to $7.4 billion from $7.1 billion.
The firm is one of the Arab world's largest privately owned banks, with nearly 25 percent owned by the family of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, and over 20 percent held by Jordan's social pension fund. The rest is owned by mainly long-term investors.
Arab Bank owns 40 percent of Saudi Arabia's Arab National Bank ANB 1080.SE. (Writing by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Editing by David Cowell)