Bahrain is well on the way to becoming the Islamic banking hub of the Middle East, but the small Gulf island faces stiff competition from Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who are all jostling for pole position as the region’s financial services hub. Bahrain, lacking the energy resources and business clout of its neighbors, is pulling out all the stops to re-position itself as a banking hub after numerous international players left in recent years to the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Qatar Financial Center (QFC). “We spoke to a lot of banks and people are shifting to Dubai, but Bahrain is making a lot of effort to retain those companies,” said Burhan Ali, a financial analyst at Kuwait’s Global Investment House. At the forefront of this drive is the launch last month of the $1.5 billion Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH), offering 60,000 square meters of office space, and
