Arab Bank May Pull Out of U.S. Market

Arab Bank, one of the Middle East’s largest, may quit the United States owing to an increasingly awkward climate exemplified by recent lawsuits from victims of Palestinian violence, a source at the bank said on Wednesday.

The Palestinian-managed bank, which has branches in cities from Austria to Korea, said its board of directors had taken a first step towards closing its New York branch, whose borrowers include more than 60 U.S. blue-chip firms with business in the Arab world.