Over the past 20 years of banking growth, the UAE has become a biosphere of financial institutions – local, foreign, specialized, conventional, and sharia-compliant – to a total sector count of 46 banks and a low banking concentration by international standards. Given that mergers and acquisitions are a staple of international banking progress in developed and developing markets, it is within the ruling global industry trend for economies of scales and ever-larger institutions that banking voices have been looking at the potential and role of mergers in the GCC financial industry. But when Dubai-based Emirates Bank International Group and National Bank of Dubai entered the merger process with a formal announcement this spring, the move provided observers with a few surprising aspects to consider. In combining their assets, the two banks will become the largest sector force in the UAE and a major regional player, although not the largest GCC
