The articles cite comments made by Rasheed al Maraj, Bahrain’s central bank governor, who met with the heads of Bahrain’s retail banks on Monday.
Bahrain, an island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia of about 1 million people, roughly half of whom are expatriates, has been hard-hit by the protests, which have caused many expats to leave, and have discouraged tourists and business executives from visiting.
A story in The National, the government-owned United Arab Emirates newspaper, quoted al Maraj as saying that Monday’s meeting had been held as a "pre-emptive measure … so that we manage to offer whatever is in the capacity of the bank to soothe out financial burdens", but the story added that he did not disclose how much was being set aside for the task.
Separately, Bloomerg reported that the Bahrain government said on Tuesday that it would open its mortgage market to foreign banks by allowing them to own real estate temporarily, citing in turn a report carried by the Bahrain News Agency.
“The foreign banks will be allowed to own the property mortgaged for the duration of the mortgage, state-run BNA said, citing a government decree,” Bloomberg said in its report, which was posted on Tuesday on arabianbusiness.com.
