Gulf banks take $1.5b subprime hit

Dubai: Arab Banking Corp., Gulf Investment Corp. and Gulf International Bank BSC wrote down a combined $1.5 billion of losses from the subprime crisis, Middle East Economic Digest reported, without saying where it got the information.

Losses at the banks, which are controlled by governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council, make up 75 per cent of the region's total writedowns attributable to mortgage-related assets, the London-based weekly magazine said on its website.

Bahrain-based Gulf International got $1 billion from shareholders to match $1 billion of provisions it made, MEED said. Arab Banking took $230 million of provisions and Gulf Investment $246 million, according to the report.