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Bahrain offshore banking units' assets drop

MANAMA: Total assets of offshore banking units (OBUs) in Bahrain dropped to $64.25 billion at the end of 1995 from $67.10 billion at end the of September and form $64.46 billion at end-1994, date published in a Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) quarterly bulletin showed on Tuesday.

The BMA, Bahrain's central bank, did not say how many offshore banking units were operating at end-1995 but it earlier said 48 units were operational in October.

There were 75 units in Bahrain at the start of the oil boom in the mid-1970s and their assets peaked at $72.58 B billion at end-1989.

Assets of 19 commercial banks were mainly steady at 2.62 billion dinars ($6.95 billion) at end- December 1995.

But the end-December 1995 figure was slightly lower than 2.64 billion dinars at end-September 1995.-Reuter