Rise of Gulf financial centres presents opportunities for City of London partnerships

The continued rise of financial centres in the Gulf complements the role of the City of London as a global financial centre.

This is the underlying theme of the City & GCC Conference on 19th June. Organised by the Middle East Association and the City of London Corporation, the annual event has this year attracted an unprecedented number of participating organisations, reflecting the growing importance of the region’s contribution to the global economy.

Keynote speakers and panellists representing economic and financial regulatory agencies from the Gulf region and London, and prominent UK and GCC financial and legal sector representatives will be discussing current topics including:

• Regulation and risk based supervision: lessons from the global credit crunch

• Building strong foundations for GCC growth: the financing and skills challenge

• Growing global impact of Islamic finance and insurance: UK and GCC synergies

• GCC external investment flows: implications and opportunities for cooperation

Alderman David Lewis, Lord Mayor of the City of London, said:

'London as the leading global financial centre works in partnership with the fast-growing Gulf regional centres of Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar. The City's strong and deep links with the Middle East, its regulatory structure and technical expertise continue to work closely with the pools of expertise and capital in the region.

This is true over a wide range of financial services – from banking and asset management to insurance – as well as in the relative new area of Islamic finance, where the transparency and neutrality of the London perspective is important.'

Lead sponsors for the event are the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) and Emirates National Bank of Dubai. Other sponsors include Etihad Airways, Calyon Credit Agricole, Coutts & Co, Strutt & Parker and DLA Piper.

Jane Dellar, Managing Director of Bahrain Financial Services Development, said: 'The notable rise of Bahrain in the Global Financial Centre Index (GFCI) is a testament to the expertise we now have on the ground. Future growth of Bahrain as a financial centre, and growth of the Gulf economy as a whole requires continued focus. In this respect our links with the City of London and the UK will continue to be important for many years to come.'

Stuart Pearce, CEO and Director General of the Qatar Financial Centre, said: 'In just three years, through the establishment of the Qatar Financial Centre, Qatar has attracted significant new financial capacity and expertise to support its ambitious and far reaching investment and development strategy and to help grow financial services in the region.

Furthermore, Qatar is demonstrating an even more progressive approach to enhancing its attractiveness for international financial institutions by adopting a single regulatory platform, similar to that of the FSA, which will help to raise standards across the entire financial sector. Qatar’s increasing investments in the UK are helping to bolster an already close relationship between the two countries.'

Baroness Symons, Vice President of the Middle East Association, said: 'I cannot help but note the cross fertilisation of British and regional individuals and organisations in this year’s line up of speakers, all of them at the top levels of decision making. The conference is designed to act as a high level opportunity for views and information to be exchanged on a full range of issues, not least on the way forward in a time of global uncertainty.'

The conference will be attended by some 200 delegates from the UK, Europe, the Middle East and GCC region. The Lord Mayor of the City of London will make the opening address.

The conference is organised by the UK’s Middle Eat Association (MEA) which has promoted trade between the UK, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey for more than 40 years, and whose members are responsible for an estimated 70 per cent of trade between the UK and the region.

GCC economic boom boosts Islamic project finance

The Middle East’s premier business intelligence service, MEED, today launched the Islamic Project Finance Report. The report details how the economic boom in the GCC is fuelling the growth in Islamic compliant borrowings for major projects.

The report also includes details of the challenges faced by the Islamic project finance sector and the increasing number of western banks adopting Islamic banking regulations within newly created divisions.

The insights from the report reveal that:

The value of Islamic project finance deals being closed is projected to grow to US$30,000 million in 2012. This could represent up to 30% of all major structured deals finalised in the region.

The driving force behind the development of the Islamic project finance market has been the economic boom in the GCC, brought about by strong oil prices. High rates of economic growth coupled with record balance payments surpluses are fuelling unprecedented liquidity in the regional banking market.

Globally there are now 300 Islamic financial institutions in more than 70 countries. At the start of 2007 they had total assets of about $300,000 million.

Figures for the first half of 2007 show that the balance sheets of the top 20 banks in the GCC grew by more than 30% over the corresponding period in 2006. The positive trends are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Much of the impetus behind the development of sharia-compliant corporate borrowing products has come from banks and professional advisory firms that are non-Islamic.

Edmund O’Sullivan at MEED, commentetd: “As the economic boom continues in the GCC, so interest in Islamic project finance and banking increases. There have been challenges in the past with the GCC courts and a shortage of qualified advisers but we now find that standards are improving and many Western banks are adding Islamic banking divisions.

“Improvements in availability and quality of product will inevitably lead to greater integration of Islamic project finance in the GCC and other Islamic and non-Islamic countries”.

The report provides insights into key trends in GCC project finance and the relationship with the Islamic finance sector. It also has an in depth analysis of how the Islamic finance sector works and the challenges faced for clients wishing to use Islamic financial products.

MEED’s full report ' Islamic Project Finance: The Dawn of a New Era is available to purchase from www.meed.com