| Headline: Challenges stack up for the banks Source: Euromoney Date: September 2001 Author: Nigel Dudley Banks in the UAE have been tardy about consolidation and rationalization, relying on the benefits of continuing high oil prices. Now, though, they face the challenges of money-laundering investigators and impending WTO financial sector liberalization.
However the next two years are likely to prove extremely challenging. The UAE has to deal with allegations made by some international regulators and bankers that it has become a centre for money laundering. There are also too many banks in the UAE and they have to come to terms with the prospect of more intense competition from aggressive international banks once the World Trade Organization’s liberalization of financial markets is introduced in 2003. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||