Banking & Insurance

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 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.”

The volume-weighted poll is the FX industry benchmark survey which is viewed by our clients and also measures our performance against our competitors. Our year on year growth in the Euromoney poll, along with other key successes including our ranking as number one in the Greenwich Quality Index for the second year running, marks HSBC out as having a leading global foreign exchange and commodities business.

Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver commented, "A lot of progress has been made in FX over the last 3 years, for which we should be proud. Our strong FX result and industry survey recognition confirm that we are a market leading FX house. We aim to continue this positive momentum with the same drive and intensity."

-Ends-

Albert Fahil

The Muscat Securities Market Index recorded 1.02% decline (59.23) to the day high value of 5,804.68 points and the Dubai Financial Market slumped by 28.95 (1.86%) to the day high value of 1,558.72 points on May 9, 2012. The Bahrain Stocks Exchange, though, recorded a slight increase of trading 0.12 (0.01%) to the day high value of 1,160.14 points, but the Qatar Stocks Exchange drooped by 61.88 (0.71%) to the day high value of 8,666.51 points. The Kuwait Stocks Exchange surge by 33.00 (0.51%) to the day high value of 6,479.90 points and the Saudi Stocks Exchange surged by 149.92 (2.03%) to the day high value of 7,371.42 points.

An expanding company from Saudi Arabia Saudi, United Electronic Company is going to open its first company in Oman soon. The location will be in the Muscat City. The company is also known eXtra and it is one of the most famous companies in Arab countries and others for home electronic appliances and other electronic items. The company in Muscat is currently being under construction at a 4,000 square metre location.  Earlier this week, the first private company in Oman engage in introducing road safety awareness projects in the society was opened in Oman. The company is named ‘Safety Fund’ and operated as non-profit company. It is run by motor sport hero Hamed Al Wahaibi.

Company’s latest initiative complements move to become ‘a one-stop-shop for all customer needs’

May 9, 2012
Al Ansari Exchange, the UAE’s largest money exchange network that provides worldwide remittance and foreign exchange services, has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority to accept bill payments from ADDC customers. Under this new service offering, customers can now pay their Abu Dhabi water and electricity bills through any of the Al Ansari Exchange branches across the UAE without extra charges.

“Over the last few years, Al Ansari Exchange has always looked towards developing easier and more convenient ways of doing financial transactions for our customers. Our aim is to give our customers the advantage of making payments swiftly and efficiently, eliminating the need to spend a lot of time while waiting in line to make bill payments using traditional methods. With the roll out of our new ADDC bills collection service, customers can now visit any of our over 110 branches across the UAE and pay their utility bills along with other bill payments while exchanging or remitting money. Customer satisfaction has always been at the core of our business philosophy and this reflects in our proactive efforts to diversify our financial services and cater to the evolving needs of our customers,” said Rashed Ali Al Ansari, General Manager, Al Ansari Exchange.

BankMuscat’s Meethaq Islamic Banking in association with International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) is hosting a 2-day workshop on Islamic Liquidity Management and Capital Market beginning today (5 May 2012) at BankMuscat head office. His Excellency Hamoud bin Sangour al Zadjali, Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman, will preside at the opening ceremony of the workshop, in the presence of dignitaries, including His Excellency Abdullah Al Salmi, Executive President of Capital Market Authority, and AbdulRazak Ali Issa, Chief Executive of BankMuscat.

Registers 23 per cent increase in customer base establishing its position as a leading provider of lending solutions in the region

Dubai, May 2, 2012: Emirates Money, a consumer finance company and wholly owned subsidiary of the Emirates NBD Group, reported robust business growth for the financial year ending 2011. The Company’s asset book has crossed AED 1.1 billion, recording a 31% growth as compared to 2010.

The company reported a growth in customer base to almost 21,000 customers in 2011, a 23% increase when compared to 2010. Emirates Money envisions an asset book size of AED 1.5 billion by the end of 2012 with a continued focus on the self-employed market segment.

Founded in mid-2008, Emirates Money has consolidated its position in the market by continuously introducing innovative loan products, such as business loans, non-salary transfer personal loans, loans against point-of-sale receivables, commercial vehicle loans, loans against gold and loans against property.

MUSCAT, 28 April 2012 – BankMuscat, the flagship financial institution in the Sultanate, has moved up again to reinforce its ranking at 300 among the top 500 global banking brands compared to 331 in 2011. The 2012 Brand Finance Banking®500 report, published in association with The Banker magazine, retained the Bank’s brand rating at ‘AA’, while the brand value accounted for almost 9 per cent of its market capitalisation.

Recurring revenues up 31 percent to 52 percent of total revenues
Cloud-based orders increase to 29 percent of total orders
Cloud-based revenues increase 81 percent

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 26, 2012 -- Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ), a global provider of unified IP business communications solutions, has announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2012.

“Our first quarter was highlighted by rapid growth in cloud-based revenue, which continues to have a positive impact on the growth and scale of our overall recurring revenues,” said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald Brown. “For the first quarter, a higher mix of cloud-based orders and the structure of certain product orders resulted in more revenues being deferred to future quarters. These factors also contributed to the 48 percent year-over-year growth in our total billed and unbilled deferred revenues. We are optimistic about our outlook for the remainder of the year, and we are maintaining our revenue, order growth and profitability guidance for 2012.”