FTX Dubai, which was created just months before the global crypto exchange collapsed last November, is asking to be exempt from U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, TheStreet.com reported. “FTX Dubai is balance-sheet solvent. Therefore, the debtors believe that a solvent voluntary liquidation procedure in accordance with the laws of the United Arab Emirates would allow a timely distribution of the positive cash balance after payment of all outstanding liabilities and liquidation of all assets," court documents said.
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North Africa/Middle East
Egypt unexpectedly resumed its cycle of monetary tightening, seeking to tame inflation that’s running at an all-time high, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the deposit interest rate by 100 basis points to 19.25% and the lending rate to 20.25%, according to a statement Thursday. Rates are now the highest since at least 2006, and above the previous peak reached during the currency crisis of 2016-2017. Of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, only BNP Paribas SA correctly predicted the hike, with the rest seeing no change.
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Banks from four Arab countries are interested in investing in Lebanon’s struggling banking sector, which was hard-hit by the small nation’s three-year economic meltdown, a top Arab banker said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic crisis in its short and troubled history that has skyrocketed poverty and inflation, and crippled its bloated public sector and infrastructure.
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Net foreign assets held by Egypt’s commercial banks went into a record deficit in June, as a lack inflows drives a deterioration in the finances of a country already struggling with its worst hard-currency shortage in years, Bloomberg News reported. The gap among lenders reached $17.1 billion, compared with $14.5 billion in May, according to data released by the central bank. The shortfall opened up as a result of a $1.7 billion drop in banks’ assets and an around $950 million increase in their liabilities.
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Virtually no one in Lebanon has been spared from the two-pronged financial collapse of both the banking system and the local currency, the lira, which has lost 98 percent of its value since 2019. But most of the burden has fallen on depositors who overnight lost access to money they had spent a lifetime saving, the New York Times reported.
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Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a law that will curb the oversight powers of the courts, a measure that has divided the nation, prompted mass protests and drawn rare US criticism. The shekel fell — recording the biggest daily loss among a basket of major currencies tracked by Bloomberg — while tens of thousands of protesters converged on the Knesset building. Opposition lawmakers boycotted the session, allowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition to pass the bill with 64 votes to 0.
Israel’s Parliament was preparing on Monday to pass a law reducing the power of judges to overrule government decisions and appointments, a plan that has sent hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets and threatens to undermine the country’s economy and security, Bloomberg News reported. The bill is sponsored by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who was discharged from the hospital Monday and joined the debate after having a cardiac pacemaker inserted. Advocates for law argue that the courts have grown too powerful and are captured by the left.
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Algeria has applied to join the BRICS group and submitted a request to become a shareholder member of BRICS Bank with an amount of $1.5 billion, Ennahar TV quoted Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as saying, Reuters reported. It added that Tebboune said at the end of his visit to China that Algeria had sought to join the BRICS to open new economic opportunities. The North Africa country is rich in oil and gas resources and seeking to diversify its economy and strengthen its partnership with countries such as China.
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Nearly 70% of Israeli startups have taken action to relocate parts of their business outside Israel, a survey released on Sunday by an Israeli non-profit organisation on the government's planned judicial overhaul found, Reuters reported. The survey by Start-Up Nation Central sought to measure the economic impact plans by the hard-right coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would restrict the Supreme Court's powers to strike down legislation.
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A millionaire 'magic circle' lawyer who sailed the seas on a £17 million superyacht is facing bankruptcy after failing to hand a £19 million investment fund back to a Saudi princess, the Daily Mail reported. Former lawyer Ronald Gibbs has been locked in a court fight with the Saudi Royal Family after he agreed to set up and manage the multi-million-pound investment fund for Princess Deema Bint Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2011.