Risk-managing the Middle East's revolutions

The January revolt in Tunisia sparked protests that toppled regimes and started wars across North Africa and the Middle East. In many countries, financial markets seized up, or closed completely. How did risk managers in the region deal with the challenges of the ‘Arab Spring’? Michael Watt reports

Late January 2011 was a strange time for Ashraf Abdul Wahab, head of the dealing room at Crédit Agricole’s Egyptian branch in Cairo – the office was closed, executive committee meetings were being held in the living rooms of his colleagues and – to make matters worse – the coffee was running out.

For the past few weeks, civil unrest had been spreading across Egypt. On January 25, the first organised protests began in downtown Cairo (see box), and the capital quickly became the backdrop to a