Banking

Albert Fahil

The Muscat Stocks Market performed well recording an increase of 56.47 (1.01%) to the day high value of 5,647.28 and the Dubai Financial Market, on the other hand, declined by 20.28 (1.36%) to the day high value of 1,486.72 points on May 16, 2012. The Qatar Stocks Exchange, too, showed a decline of 23.56 (0.28%) to the day high value of 8,419.32 points and the Kuwait Stocks Exchange decreased by 3.63 (0.06%) to the day high value of 6,452.46 points. The Bahrain Stocks Exchange increased marginally by 0.46 (0.04%) to the day high value of 1,155.85 points and the Saudi Stocks Exchange declined by 4.34 (0.06%) to the day high value of 7,104.24 points.

While ME stocks markets swinging for sometime now, the regional developmental projects and investment related activities show positive despite many a setbacks the region experienced in the past one year or so. Later this month, the MEED Quality Awards for Projects 2012 would be announced by Ernst & Young and a total of 23 projects are being considered to be granted the awards. From Oman, Royal Court Affairs’ Royal Court, Nimr Produced Water Treatment Project, Nimr C Full Field Water Injection Project and Amal Power Station and Water Desalination Project would be in the limelight for winning the awards from the respective categories. Meanwhile, OmanAir won the award for “the Best Business Class Airline in Middle East from the Business Destination Travel Awards 2012. The readership of Business Destination Magazine votes for the selection to the award.  

•    Compete in a virtual Race to London and win a trip to London 2012 Olympic Games for you and three friends
•    Four weeks, four challenges, nine countries – one winning team

Muscat, 16th May 2012: Visa, one of the world’s leading payment solution providers, is encouraging Middle East consumers to participate in its innovative virtual game, Race to London, to compete for a once-in-a-lifetime prize - a trip to London 2012 Olympic Games for four people.

Visa’s Race to London is a unique online game inspired by its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Gaming fanatics, sports fans, families and Anglophiles can join forces in teams of four and register online to compete in a series of online challenges over a period of four weeks. Each team will battle it out through four different challenges against participants in nine countries across the GCC to complete each challenge in the fastest time and be in with a chance to win the top prize.

MUSCAT, 15 May 2012 -  BankMuscat, the flagship financial services provider in the Sultanate, hosted a seminar on ‘Trade trends in emerging markets’, attended by senior corporate representatives, in the presence of AbdulRazak Ali Issa, Chief Executive of BankMuscat.

Organised by the Bank’s Financial Institution Group (FIG), the seminar was addressed by  Shehzad Sharjeel Mumtaz, Regional Head Trade, MENA, IFC; Daniel Son, Senior Vice- President, Trade Sales, Wells Fargo; and Zaid Mahdi, Vice-President – FX, Media and PR, Trade Bank of Iraq.

The market development initiative, which evoked strong response, stems from the Bank’s constant efforts to maintain the leadership role in the Omani banking sector, offering innovative products and solutions for clients.

Bank’s economists provide outlook and insight on global and regional economy

UAE, 15 May, 2012 - Standard Chartered today hosted its annual Forum in Dubai. The event was held at Madinat Jumeirah and attended by more than 400 of the Bank’s clients and senior management. This year, the Forum was held under the title, “The New Normal: Markets Emerging in the Super-Cycle”. The annual event is held exclusively for Standard Chartered’s clients, with a cohesive programme that provides valuable insight, outlook and commentary.

On the sidelines of the forum, the Bank held an economist briefing for the media on the global, regional and local economies. The media briefing was hosted by Standard Chartered’s Economists, Philippe Dauba-Pantanacce, Senior Economist for the Middle East and North Africa, David Mann, Regional Head of Research for the Americas and Sarah Hewin, Regional Head of Research for the UK and Europe.  

May 15th 2012, Muscat, BankDhofar has announced that it has signed up to a broadcast sponsorship of TV show “Hayatuna”, on Oman TV Channel.
The sponsorship involves a number of new episodes across the series which highlights different issues affecting Omani society.

Mr. Ahmed Said Al Ibrahim, Assistant General Manager, Government Relation, BankDhofar said “Our aim of sponsoring this TV program is to raise awareness about the current social issues in our society and to hold awareness programs and events to prevent these problems. One such issue which is dealt with during the series is road safety. We are working hard here in Oman to become more road safety aware and at BankDhofar we see sponsoring such a show as an opportunity to further raise the awareness of this issue. Hayatuna increases the awareness in the community of many issues and helps to educate people about the prevention measurements.”

May 14th 2012, Muscat, BankDhofar recently participated in an open day as part of a recruitment exhibition which took place at Salalah College of Applied Sciences. Throughout the day, BankDhofar team members were on hand to meet with students of the College and provide them with information on employment options available at the Bank. 

Speaking at the event, Mr. Mohamed Al Balushi, AGM Human Resources, BankDhofar said “We have seen many students here today who have expressed a real interest with coming on board and working with us at BankDhofar. We have registered their Curriculum Vitaes and hope to turn this interest into real jobs. In line with our strategic Omanization plans, we are keen to be involved in such events which we believe will reveal a lot of potential talented Omanis who can join our teams and participate in our progress. We have been awarded the best bank in nationalizing jobs in the gulf, and we are proud to have many talented Omanis in all our departments and teams.”

MUSCAT, 14 May 2012 -  BankMuscat, the flagship financial services provider in the Sultanate, in partnership with the Global Board Centre of the Institute of Management Development (IMD), Switzerland, organised a workshop on corporate governance for the bank’s board of directors. The workshop facilitated by Professor Didier Cossin, Director of IMD Global Board Center, was designed and customised for the bank’s board of directors led by Sheikh Khalid bin Mustahail Al Mashani, Chairman.  

The workshop addressed best bank and non-bank board practices in order to inspire continuous improvement in corporate governance in the bank. Other themes included causes of board failures, what makes boards effective, building strong management pool, establishing winning board culture and board’s role in driving strategies. The workshop benchmarked what boards of leading organisations do to maintain being the best in the world.

May 2012 – HSBC has been recognized as a leading global FX house in the 2012 Euromoney FX Poll with an improved ranking of fifth place overall.

This year’s top five ranking highlights the strong progress being made to develop our FX business and builds on last year’s sixth place. Our fifth place position represents a doubling of our volume of votes and market share over the last three years, with our clients registering USD14 trillion of business in the 2012 poll.

Frederic Boillereau, Global Head of FX and Commodities said: "Improving our ranking for the second year running highlights what a strong and competitive FX business we are developing. We continue to improve our global connectivity with clients, increase market share and deliver on our strategy for sustainable revenue growth. We can all be proud of this result which shows our growing status in the market place at a time when competition is as strong as ever.”