Sector - Private Banking

UBP hires for emerging markets push

New MD to target Middle East and Eastern Europe at private bank.

Wish you were here?

The private banking industry is changing – and players in emerging markets are set to benefit. Tim Burke reports.

Dubai World's restructuring boost for UAE banks

Report is positive for banks but warns of other burdens.

SocGen private banking names new senior managers

French bank expands wealth management presence in Middle East.

Barclays Wealth boosts private banking team

Sahba Hadipour joins Barclays Wealth as director in international private banking.

Emirates NBD appoints private banking CIO

UAE bank hires former Merrill Lynch director Gary Dugan

New appointment at HSBC Private Bank, CEE

HSBC Private Bank has appointed Nikolai Gurbatov as an associate director in its London-based Central Eastern Europe team.

Harry Martin joins Barclays Wealth in the Middle East

Barclays Wealth, a global wealth management institution, has apponited Harry Martin as director to its international private banking team in the Middle East.

Small is beautiful

While the top global banks have shed thousands of jobs, some smaller firms have been aggressively hiring. But they face a tough struggle against the larger competition, reports Eva-Luise Schwarz.

CEE pension assets to quintuple to €250bn by 2015

Pension assets in the CEE region are set to boom from €50.8bn in 2008 to €244.9bn in 2015, according to a new report from Allianz Global Investors. 

CEE pension assets to quintuple to €250bn by 2015

Pension assets in the CEE region are set to boom from €50.8bn in 2008 to €244.9bn in 2015, according to a new report from Allianz Global Investors. 

Private banking goes onshore

As local market infrastructure strengthens in EMEA countries, private banking is increasingly going onshore. So will western offshore centres  lose out? Julian Evans reports.

Private banking is booming, and nowhere more so than in emerging markets. Catherine Tillotson, head of research at Scorpio Partnership, which is a private banking consultancy firm, says: “Our evidence suggests last year was an excellent year for private banks, and that most of the growth came from emerging markets.”
 

Is HSBC ready to go east?

HSBC’s new head of international banking, Tony Mahoney, tells emeafinance’s editor Julian Evans the bank is ready for a “substantial move” into Central & Eastern Europe (CEE).

As you stand on the escalators at Heathrow, looking at the row upon row of adverts for HSBC, you see signs of its activities all over the world. You can tell that it is very active in China and Hong Kong, as its history would suggest. You can tell it has made strong in-roads into the Middle East, not least through its Islamic banking subsidiary, HSBC Amanah. It has expanded ambitiously into the US, and also has active businesses in Central and South America.
 

Turkey’s strengthened banks unfazed by rising risks

Boosted by a wave of reforms and foreign investment, Turkish banks are confident that they can weather the current climate of slowing growth and rising interest rates and resume their rapid growth. Of course, there will be winners and losers. And privatisation is still to come, writes Bernard Kennedy in Ankara.

Global and domestic markets may be dragging their feet, but Turkey’s banks have a spring in their step.
Between December 2006 and March 2008, the 50 banks – including the four small but burgeoning ‘Islamic’ participation banks – opened 1,100 new branches and took on 23,000 extra staff. These figures represent a 15% expansion. Hundreds more branches are planned.

Kuwaiti banks: Flying a crowded nest

As new players enter the Kuwaiti banking market and the central bank tightens lending rules, existing domestic players are increasingly
looking abroad, writes Clare Dunkley.

In contrast to the catchphrase once used to advertise the UK’s TSB – “the bank that likes to say ‘yes’” – the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has traditionally been viewed as the bank that likes to say the opposite. Thus the Kuwaiti financial sector is typically regarded as either the GCC’s most carefully regulated and stable, or most over-scrutinised and restrictive. But from both perspectives, it is a market in a state of almost unprecedented flux, with new rules being imposed, new institutions entering the marketplace, and established players taking advantage of more than five years of economic boom and hence ballooning profits to spread their wings overseas – escaping both the fierce competition and the draconian referee.