Sector - Wealth Management

UAE investment firm launched

New adviser to support female investors.

Morgan Stanley to open Poland office

Financial giant announces Warsaw branch to serve Eastern Europe.

Barclays Wealth boosts private banking team

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

Changes for Barclays Wealth in ME operations

Barclays Wealth, a leading global wealth management institution, has appointed Fawaz Baba as managing director to its Middle East operations. He will report to Soha Nashaat, CEO of Barclays Wealth, Middle East and North Africa.

Funds search for alternative to equity

After several years of rapid growth, shariah-compliant asset management is facing the first serious test of its young life, as it struggles to diversify from equity and property into new areas, writes Eva-Luise Schwarz.

Banks rush to sell AM and private banking arms

Banks are hoping to follow Barclays’ lead and raise capital through the disposal of asset and wealth management divisions. But who is buying?

ADIC names Sarwar new executive

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), the region’s leading Islamic bank, has appointed Malik Sarwar as global wealth management executive.

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.

GWM names new managing partner

Samir Sayeed will join the Global Wealth Management Group (GWM Group), an independent financial service partnership based in Switzerland, as a managing partner.

GWM expands into Middle East

Global Wealth Management Group (GWM) has announced that Shawn Mofidi has been elected chairman of the wealth management and family office services division of the firm.

Steve Fedor joins Barclays Wealth as COO in MENA

Barclays Wealth, a leading global wealth management institution, has appointed Steve Fedor as front office chief operating officer of Barclays Wealth, Middle East and North Africa.  

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.”
 

Sovereign wealth funds face the limelight

Having been caught in a blizzard of media and regulatory attention in the first half of 2008, sovereign wealth funds are taking steps to try and improve their public image, including agreeing to a voluntary code of conduct in September, reports Julian Evans.

For decades, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been operating quietly in the shadows of the global financial system, with minimal fuss or publicity, buying minority stakes in western assets, and rarely even taking seats on the boards of companies they invested in. But that all changed in the last 12 months, when SWFs suddenly became the hot topic of the western financial media.

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.
 

Riding the MENA wave

Egypt’s reformist government is grappling with the dilemma of fighting inflation while cutting a growing deficit. However, in the capital markets, Egyptian companies are expanding and becoming MENA regional champions. Julian Evans reports from Cairo.

In 2004, after a decade of poor economic performance, President Mubarak appointed a new government, headed up by Ahmed Nazif, the youngest-ever prime minister of Egypt. Nazif brought in a cabinet of liberal reformers – some from the private sector, such as Rasheed Mohamed, minister of trade and industry, who was formerly CEO of Unilever in Egypt; some from multilaterals, such as Youssef Boutros Ghali, formerly of the IMF; and some from academia, such as Mahmood Mohieldin, minister of investment, who was formerly an economics professor at the University of Cairo, where Nazif also formerly worked.