Oil Prices And The Pandemic Will Force Gulf Banks To Merge

The low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic have increased the financial pressure on the banks in the Gulf region, which will be looking at more mergers and acquisitions opportunities at times of decreased profitability, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report on Tuesday. The six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—are major producers of oil and gas, and their economies have suffered from the double whammy of the crash in oil prices…