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Hiring Continues In The Middle East Wealth Management Bonanza

Despite chilly global credit markets, the Middle Eastern wealth management arena is a recruitment hotspot. Firms are busily hiring senior executives to spearhead new wealth management teams. For example, Merrill Lynch recently appointed Mazin Al-Shakarchi as a financial advisor covering Qatar from the Bahrain office. HSBC Bank Middle East has appointed Walid Boustany to the role of executive director, strategic investments, Middle East & North Africa. He will be responsible for HSBC’s strategic planning across the region. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has appointed Fadi Abuali as co-head of its Middle East private wealth management business, alongside current head Farid Pasha.

And there is more: the Central Bank of Bahrain has approved Douglas Hansen-Luke as Robeco’s new chief executive for the Middle East. Mr Hansen-Luke formerly worked in senior positions for ABN Amro Asset Management in Asia, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has appointed Shaikh Salman bin Ahmad Al Khalifa as managing director, group business development.

The rash of appointments seen in recent years will continue, barring an unlikely collapse in demand for wealth management, Professor Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create-Research, a UK consultancy on the investment management industry, told WealthBriefing.

Wealth managers are going into the Middle East in a big way, said Professor Rajan. This is a high-margin business to be in as banks get fees right along the value chain, he said. But although the region is lucrative, making money is not easy. Local investors typically punish poor investment performance quickly – often far faster than is the case with European or US clients, said Professor Rajan.

The real issue is to understand the client mindset. Client money [in the Middle East] isn’t sticky at all. When performance is bad they ask for a rebate, which is how it should be. If [wealth managers] can survive in the Middle East, they can survive anywhere, he added.

Barclays Wealth, for example, has every intention of doing more than just survive in the region. As an illustration of its ambitions, Barclays is moving into a new 14,000 square feet office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which will be a hub for the firm’s operations in the region. Operating currently in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Barclays Wealth is also planning to make its Doha Qatar office operational this year.

Barclays Wealth leadership believes that the Middle East is a core area of growth. A substantial investment in human resources and capabilities and a rigorous expansion plan will lead to a substantial increase in the scope of operations, Soha Nashaat, managing director, head of Middle East, North Africa & Turkey for Barclays Wealth, told WealthBriefing.
Like Professor Rajan, Ms Nashaat says wealth management firms entering the Middle East from outside the region must understand the local culture if they are to make a success of their business. For example, more than 70 per cent of businesses are family-owned, which requires managers to forge long-term connections.

Wealth managers must understand and cater to the regional trends such as the dominance of family offices, Ms Nashaat said. Investors tend to be intolerant of risk and hold a high proportion of assets in cash and in offshore locations, she added.

Middle Eastern clients put great stress on strong relationships with investment advisors and dislike high turnover in staff, a factor that wealth managers must consider in their staff recruitment and retention plans, Stuart Crocker, chief executive, Emirates Platform and Southern Gulf States, HSBC Private Bank told WealthBriefing.

People don’t like seeing relationship managers moving on every two or three years to other banks, he said. His own bank, part of the HSBC banking group, serves clients both from local Middle Eastern locations as well as from its teams of specialists in Geneva.

The general background for wealth managers is certainly favourable. The investable assets of HNW individuals will rise by 50 per cent between 2006 and 2010, according to Barclays Wealth data.

The number of HNW individuals rose by 11.9 per cent in 2006 from a year before, according to the latest Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report issued last June. Wealth management intermediaries have only started to manage a significant share of assets in the region. Research from Zurich International Life, for example, reveals that expats living in the Middle East prefer to rely on their own judgment or friends and family when purchasing financial products. The survey showed that fewer than one in ten expats would enlist a financial advisor, either in their country of domicile or residence, to help them make the financial decisions. Financial advisors have a vast untapped market to go for.

While researchers like PricewaterhouseCoopers have warned that wealth management firms face a skills bottleneck, hiring staff for Middle Eastern slots is being helped by a benign tax regime and attractive pay packages.

Private bankers in tax-free Dubai earn 25 per cent more than their peers in Geneva and almost 40 per cent more than colleagues in London, according to a recent survey by Dubai-based headhunter Dunn Consultancy FZ-LLC.

Excluding bonuses, private bankers in Dubai with at least 10 years experience receive an average salary of $276,500 with allowances, compared with pre-tax earnings of $221,900 in Geneva and $199,100 in London, it found.

The economics of wealth management in the Middle East certainly look compelling. For the time being at least, the toughest challenge for players in the region is keeping up with the pace.

Is The Eurozone Falling Apart

The Eurozone is also called the Euro area because of what it stands for. This union is made of 17 countries, members of the European Union which agreed to adopt the same currency and the same legal tender. This turns the Eurozone into a monetary and economic union. When the Eurozone was established back in 1999 it represented one of the first things that pointed out towards the tendency of globalization. Is this tendency no longer wanted? Do European leaders no longer want to be united under the same currency? Or is the Euro the cause of the current financial problems and maintaining this union can no longer be profitable or safe?

All these questions started to worry leaders from the Eurozone and not only. Even though the 17 countries that are part of this union are the ones directly involved and affected by a possible falling apart, the other European countries or states from other continents are very likely to suffer from the consequences of such a breakup too.

Most financial specialists say that the main cause of a possible Eurozone crash is the huge debts many of the 17 countries cannot pay back. The fact that Greece was threatened by a default and that only another loan was able to postpone what some consider the inevitable makes things even worse. Analysts say that this financial crisis resembles the incurable diseases called cancer. If it is ignored it doesnt go away. Instead it spreads until the patient dies. If the patient is the Eurozone, only an intense treatment can save the Euro and the economies of the states that adhered to it.

There are some investors who speculate that the end of the Eurozone is close and try to find ways of making money out of this crush. Some of the financial analysts say that it is because of these people who speculate for their own interest that the Euro is threatened and that the Eurozone can fall apart. In spite of that, there are obvious signs that things are not as they should be and that the common currency might cause more problems than help.

Investors get scared of all the negative news they hear and try to do their best to preserve their wealth. Many of them fear that keeping money in banks is not a good solution and choose to invest in assets that have high intrinsic value. Many of them choose to invest in gold or other precious metals that are the only hard assets that seemed to increase their value these days. They are making the right decisions since buying gold has, is and will always be a profitable investment.

Find The Right Financial Magazine For Your Needs

These days, everyone is worried about finances. The economy has been slow, Europe is in financial crisis, and it always seems like your money is going somewhere other than in your pocket. Because of this, you’re probably looking for ways to learn more about finances, and find ways to fulfill your own financial needs. One of the best ways to do this is with a financial magazine. A financial magazine can offer a lot of great information on a variety of topics, and can help you learn more about finances, as well as better regulate your money. Finding the right financial magazine for your needs, however, can be tricky. There’s a wide variety of them available, and you want to choose the right one for you. Here are a few things to consider when you’re researching financial magazines that will help you find the right magazine for you. First, consider what you want to read about in a financial magazine. If you’re interested in personal finances in general, you’ll get more useful information from a broad-spectrum magazine that caters to individuals. If you’re considering starting your own business, however, you’ll be more likely to find the information you need in a magazine that talks about the financial ins and outs of small businesses. There are many money-based magazines that cater to both these interests, as well as the interests of home owners, military members, and high-profile CEOs. Finding out what aspects of finance interests you will help you narrow down your magazine choices, and choose the right financial magazine for you. After you’ve narrowed down your interests, consider the reputation of different magazines. While this isn’t the most important aspect of choosing a financial magazine, it can make a difference in the long run. If you choose a magazine that’s well-known, for instance, you’re more likely to get a lot of information that’s been verified. The people working at these larger, well-respected magazines often have connections and experience in the financial industry, and can provide you with more information that’s more accurate than other magazines. That’s not to say smaller magazines don’t provide quality information, but there are advantages to choosing magazines with good reputations. These are two of the most important things to look at when finding the magazine that’s right for your interests and lifestyle, but there are also additional factors that you can look into. How often the magazine is published, for instance, may be important to you. If you don’t have much time to read, you may prefer a magazine that’s published monthly, while those who have more time and interest in finance may want a magazine that comes out every week. Another factor to consider is cost. Financial magazines vary widely in their price range, so be sure to pick one that fits your budget. Price, frequency, reputation, personal interest and magazine focus are all important factors to consider when you’re looking for the right financial magazine for you.

MyReviewsNow.net offers information regarding selecting a financial magazine. For more on financial periodicals, please visit us at MyReviewsNow.net.

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Where To Go To Get Your Financial Answers

Financial answers need to be accurate. In dealing with financial questions, issues and matters, it is best if the answers are founded on proven truths, and not just mere hearsays, and assumptions. Even educated guess is not given merit.

If you have any questions regarding your finances, you can get straight and correct answers from different sources. The most common are the financial books. If you are looking for financial facts, figures and statistics, you can get the information from national bank financial departments, financial trust institutions and commercial banks.

There are general areas of finance. These are the business finance, personal finance and public finance. Now, these are all serious matters. Anybody who speaks of any of these subjects must have in-depth knowledge.

If you ask anybody, the answers you could get could be wrong. Financial books that are published, read, and used by professors, students, financial analysts and wide-readers are known to be factual and accurate.

For example, if you need financial answers about Managerial finance, financial books of that subject can provide the best answer. Besides books, you can also find what you are looking for in other financial publications such as financial reports, encyclopedias, and financial magazines.

Another source of information can be the professors. If you ask a professors who specializes in finance and financial management, his answers may come from different books and other research.

Professors have devoted several years studying their specific fields in order to become an expert. Besides being a professor, some of them also work as financial analysts, economy watchers and so forth.

High officials working from financial institutions are also capable of giving excellent financial answers. If you want to know simple answers on law of supply and demand, depreciation and appreciation of currency, global market or globalization, then, these individuals are the masters.

Besides their high level of education and rigid training, they have many years of being in the front line of making crucial decision, in behalf of their company or state.

Now, if you cannot visit a school or State library because you are busy, you can still get your accurate and correct financial answers. The internet today can do that. Now, on the web are many thousand of sites that provide information about almost anything your mind can conceive. There are community rooms, discussion and forum rooms that you can join and post any query.

Anybody who happens to read your question can give financial answers. The question is; are the answers you received accurate? You can never tell. You may check a few sources to verify. But then again, that is tantamount to doing the research yourself.

In order to save time, you may get financial answers from the web. But you have to pay for them. There are experts working on the web who are willing to share their expertise to anybody who is willing to pay for their efforts. The good thing about them is you can ask for a refund, if you are not satisfied with their work.