Rising debt is one of the two biggest risks facing the global economy, according to Atlas Merchant Capital CEO Bob Diamond.
Aside from the U.S.-China trade war, Diamond cited negative-yielding bonds and a rise in outstanding credit worldwide as a key concern for investors.
"It may be 2020, it may be 2021, but at some point we need to begin to worry about the proliferation of credit," Diamond, who served as CEO of British bank Barclays from January 2011 until July 2012, told CNBC's Dan Murphy at the SALT Conference in Abu Dhabi.
"One of the very positive things that has happened over the last 10 years since the financial crisis is the quick reaction of monetary policy and lowering interest rates, but I worry about the $17 trillion in negative interest rate bonds, and we worry about the overall size of the amount of credit that is outstanding now," he added.
In its recent Global Financial Stability Report, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) escalated its warnings about high levels of risky corporate debt, which have been exacerbated by persistent low interest rates from banks.
Last month, ratings agency Moody's issued a negative outlook for sovereign creditworthiness in 2020, citing a "disruptive and unpredictable" political environment for the $63.2 trillion in outstanding government debt across the 142 sovereigns it rates.
Moody's cited the U.S.-China trade war as the starkest manifestation of the impact of geopolitical tensions, and Diamond cited a possible breakdown of negotiations between Washington and Beijing as the number one risk to the global economy.
"Can any of these trade war discussions go wrong? Certainly being here in the Middle East, you recognize the importance of trade with China for the Middle East, the importance of trade with Japan and China. Where is the U.S. going to be in terms of resolving the trade discussions with China?" Diamond said.