ABSTRACT
Bahrain is an island centrally located in the Arabian Gulf, within 30 kilometres of the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 50 kilometres to the west of the state of Qatar, 430 kilometres south-east of Kuwait and 430 kilometres north of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (see Figure 7.1). Together with the UAE, Bahrain is the financial centre for the Middle East, and has been so since the 1970s when the oil price rise of 1973–74 stimulated economic growth. One consequence of the significant increase in economic activity was the need for an expanded and more sophisticated banking sector.
