Issues

The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), a multilateral bank owned by the 10 member states of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, in August reported an above-budget net income of $47m for the first six months of 2010, a 95 per cent rise over the same period the previous year. Assets at the end of June had climbed to …

The UAE and Saudi Arabia received 80 per cent of the total $278bn worth of foreign direct investments (FDI) that flowed into the GCC over the past two decades, according to the latest report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD ). The UAE was the second largest recipient with $73.4bn, or 26 per cent of the …

Standard Chartered Bank has launched a new cash management service for corporate and institutional clients in the UAE . Client Account Services (CAS ) is an innovative, web-based solution designed for organisations to manage customer funds. This is a first-of-its-kind solution, says Standard Chartered Bank, and it enables clients to open downstream customer bank accounts online. CAS can be used …

The Abu Dhabi financial services firm Invest AD and Japan’s SBI Holdings Inc (SBI) are establishing a new fund management company to invest in Africa, starting with capital of up to $100m. The new fund will focus on Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. It will invest in several sectors, including banking, mining, consumer products and manufacturing, through listed …

EzRemit (EzR), a leading provider of money transfer services using state-of-theart, web-based technology, has signed a strategic partnership with United Bank of Egypt (UBE). EzRemit is part of BFC Group Holdings, which also owns Bahrain Financing Company (BFC), the Kingdom of Bahrain’s oldest leading money transfer and foreign exchange group. Launched in 2003, with a mission to provide fast, affordable …

English is on the agenda in Bahrain. The Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) is the first institute in the region to adopt the Cambridge Financial English (CFE) blended learning course to help develop language skills in the finance sector. The move is part of a growing trend in which command of English is seen as an essential skill. …

Things are looking up for the UAE , according to its economy minister Sultan Mansouri, who is reported as saying that he expects “clear skies ahead compared with the overcast conditions of last year”. The forecast is for positive growth of three per cent this year despite uncertainties and risks such as weak credit growth, reports the Standard Chartered Global …

Dear Reader, Trade finance is making a comeback. It is not only refocusing on its capabilities in risk mitigation, but also regaining its place as a competitive advantage. This is occurring in many markets, from developing and emerging economies, to those that are developed, and in a wide variety of industry sectors. Alexander Malaket, who has contributed an article in …

MUSHTAK PARKER looks at some of the constraints on the sector Considering that intra-Islamic trade between the 57 member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) states totalled a staggering $556.328bn in 2008, albeit 16.55 per cent of their total trade, one would have assumed that the uptake of Islamic trade and commodity finance would be equally robust. This …

In an exclusive interview, SAMIR SAHU, head of transaction banking services at Emirates NBD, talks to Cash & Trade What are the bank’s transaction strategy and its market? The bank’s transaction strategy has been to service, at an attractive price point, corporate and SME businesses through technology solutions that facilitate clients who give us their whole turnovers. This business was …

Cash forecasting is essentially the process of collecting information on balances and future cashflows from business units and being able to consolidate them instantly. Why is it so difficult and is there a simple, pragmatic approach to make it easier? SANNA OUTA, chief operating officer at Exidio, looks at common mistakes and how to avoid them . I graduated from …

As part of its aim to create transparency in the trade finance marketplace, CMM publishes this report, prepared by CAROLINE MAGINN, Cash Management Matters, CMM trade partner. This research will be updated quarterly throughout the year and anticipates the full-year report for 2010, which will be released after annual reports are published by the banks in Saudi Arabia. In the …

This article, by DILRUKSHAN ABEYSINGHE, senior sales manager, payments and cash management HSBC Middle East, United Arab Emirates, provides an overview of current approaches and issues relating to cash management, specifically the management of working capital. Among the points it makes are the following: • Using supplier credit as a source of capital may seem cost-efficient but carries potential risks …

If a company has mismatched intercompany transactions, how can it trust its financial statements? This article, by KEITH HARRIS, explores some discussion points for the treasurer, finance director and, ultimately, the chief financial officer Consider a company whose “goods” are physical products or services that are bought and sold. One party is the producer and the other – the counterparty …

Philippe Arbadji, BNY Mellon’s vice president for treasury services, Levant region, and Dominic Broom , managing director, treasury services EMEA, recently hosted a roundtable featuring a number of senior trade and transaction banking professionals from across Lebanon and Jordan. In light of the views expressed, they discuss the future of the sector. While many banks in the West are seemingly …

Backed by structural advantages and robust fundamentals, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to record sustained GDP growth rates over the medium to longer term, Credit Suisse analysts said in July. Addressing participants at a Credit Suisse Research Roundtable, Kamran Butt, head of Middle East Equities Research at Credit Suisse, Private Banking, said, “In our view, stable oil …