Dubai lender Mashreq sets sights on Egypt and Turkey, says CEO

Dubai's Mashreq is targeting Egypt and Turkey for acquisitions to expand beyond its crowded home market, its chief executive told Reuters as he dismissed suggestions that it could be interested in any of Standard Chartered's assets in the United Arab Emirates.

A number of local banks had been held up as potential buyers of UAE operations that sources said Standard Chartered was aiming to sell after it agreed to close some accounts there in an anti-money laundering settlement with authorities in the United States.

But Mashreq, Dubai's third-largest bank by assets, has no interest in any of the British lender's UAE operations, CEO Abdul Aziz al-Ghurair said on the sidelines of a company event in Dubai.

"We prefer in the UAE to grow organically. None of our growth in the UAE has happened through acquisition," he said.

Instead, the company is looking to join an increasing number of Gulf lenders snapping up banking stakes in other countries to diversify in the face of intense competition at home, where 51 lenders battle for market share.