“We at the BAB have no information that some banks plan to go out of Bahrain,” Robert Ainey said in a statement.

“Bahrain is open for business and the rumors about some foreign banks’ plans to relocate their businesses are just baseless,” he added.

BAB CEO said that keeping in view the rumors in the market, the BAB is organizing a roundtable with all leading foreign banks on Tuesday (April 12) to discuss and deliberate upon the situation.

The CEO of the Economic Development Board Shaikh Mohammed Bin Isa Al Khalifa will also attend the meeting to address any issues related to the government.

Earlier, on March 8, BAB had a similar meeting with the heads of the foreign banks to discuss the situation at that time and after the meeting BAB President Abdulkarim Bucheery told reporters that despite some peaceful protests the situation was well under control in Bahrain.

The banks, including the foreign entities, are working under normal circumstances amid growing concerns of these prolonged protests in the country.

Sources at the banking sector confirmed the liquidity situation among banks remain at satisfactory levels and the operations being normal, thanks to the low pressure of consumer and commercial loans in the past six weeks

In the wake of unfolding events, the banks in Bahrain had adopted a conservative approach on commercial loans just to minimize the loan exposure due to unfolding events in MENA.

This low demand of loans in Bahrain has contributed to the low pressure on the banks making it much easier for the financial institutions to navigate through the challenging times.

The low demand in consumer loans in Bahrain is largely attributed to the distribution of BD116 million to Bahraini families under the BD1,000 per family ‘Royal Gesture’ announced by the king on the anniversary of National Action Charter.

Experts have also ruled out rumors of flight of capital out of Bahrain and believe that Bahrain would emerge even stronger after the recent incidents, which slightly impacted the retail or consumer banking businesses.

Retail businesses and commercial entities are reporting negative impact on their businesses and that is also not much in comparison with the Tunisia, Egypt, etc.