BMI Offshore Bank, a tiny institution with links to the Bahraini royal family and governments of Oman and Dubai, was forced into the arms of the central bank after its correspondent bank, Bank of China (Johannesburg), exited the relationship in October – several months after JPMorgan did the same.
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With Bank of China no longer facilitating BMIO’s main business of foreign currency customer transfers, and BMIO unable to find a replacement, the central bank was forced to take control on November 11.
BMIO’s business model is focused entirely on banking with nonresidents in foreign currency, so its transactions need to be carried out through a correspondent bank.
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