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LATEST ARTICLES
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Global money is flooding into India to profit from high-performing stocks, a booming economy, and the ease of investing via Gift City, a growing financial hub in Gujarat. Local wealth is flowing the other way, notably to Dubai. It’s a gold mine for private banks, and the process has only just begun.
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The family-office sector in the Middle East has become increasingly important in recent years, with more and more local and international family offices setting up in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
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Emirates NBD Private Banking’s retail banking and wealth management division generated its highest-ever revenue and strongest loan growth during the awards period and the firm is named Euromoney’s best private bank in the Middle East this year.
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In a region where most private-sector commercial activity is undertaken by family businesses, succession planning and wealth transfer could not be more important.
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Ultra-high net-worth can be the most challenging client segment to service for private banks. The investable assets these clients provide can come with challenging demands and complicated needs.
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The challenges presented by the pandemic and broader geopolitical tensions have meant that the role of the chief investment office has become especially important to any private banking offering in the Middle East.
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Lombard Odier takes home the award for Euromoney’s best pure play private bank in the Middle East this year. The Swiss firm has transformed its presence in the region over the last few years.
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Emirates NBD has been named Euromoney’s best private bank for digital solutions in the Middle East for a second year in a row.
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Sustainable finance came under intense scrutiny across the Middle East when COP28 took place in Dubai last year.
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The banks in each market that have excelled across a range of core private banking activities during the past 12 months.
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BNP Paribas Wealth Management has been named Euromoney’s best international private bank in the Middle East for 2024.
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Investment research is about more than producing reports and roundtables. It is about creating quality resources that clients trust and respect.
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Discretionary portfolio management is an important part of Lombard Odier’s offering worldwide, and this is reflected in its business in the Middle East.
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FNB wins the award for Africa's best private bank for ultra-high net-worth this year. The pan-African lender’s distinctive offering for the super wealthy demonstrates its ability to serve these clients.
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The banks in each market that have excelled across a range of core private banking activities during the past 12 months.
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Seven years ago, Barclays’ then chief executive Jes Staley decided to gradually sell down its Johannesburg-listed African unit, including retail banks across the continent. But when Credit Suisse announced a strategic refresh in 2021 – including selling its ultra-high net-worth private client book in nine African markets – Barclays saw it as a chance to gain bulk in African private banking once again.
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FNB has put succession planning at the heart of its private wealth proposition, taking the view that all clients should have access to the service, regardless of income or balance-sheet value. It considers the needs not only of the existing client but also the aspirations of the next generation.
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This year’s winner for best bank for high net-worth (HNW) individuals in Africa, Standard Bank Wealth and Investment, is rewarded for delivering clever tailored solutions to its growing clientele across key African markets.
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FNB is this year’s winner for Africa's best bank for discretionary portfolio management. Not only did the regional lender’s discretionary solutions deliver a strong performance compared with its peers, but the bank also continued to innovate to meet new client needs in 2023.
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As part of one of South Africa’s biggest banking groups, FNB’s private wealth offering provides clients with advice across local and offshore portfolios to help them leverage their assets at every stage of their life.
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In an African context in which private family wealth is growing rapidly, Standard Bank Wealth and Investment regards itself as one of the few large regional institutions with a comprehensive family-office service. It sees itself as a pioneer in this area, and wants to maintain a preeminent position in the category as the importance of African family offices continues to grow.
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As Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank Wealth and Investment is well-placed to take advantage of the growth of the continent as a private-banking market. The firm is led by Jacques Els.
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Two key elements of Standard Bank Wealth and Investment’s offering stood out in this category. The first of these, My360, allows clients to visualise and control their financial assets. It offers them an aggregated view of their portfolio across asset classes, providing clients with a view of their net asset value in multiple currencies, and allowing them to delve deeper into different categories from a single dashboard.
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Last year was marked by innovation and implementation for 2024’s winner of the award for Africa's best bank for philanthropic advisory: FNB.
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Next-gen clients can be just as diverse as any other private-banking clients, with similar ranges of age, investment goals and overall desire to be involved in the family wealth.
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Bankers in the Middle East are intensifying their focus on succession planning as the first wave of intergenerational wealth transfer looms.
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Abu Dhabi and Dubai sell themselves as international hubs for tech companies, with new initiatives to support start-ups and scale-ups, but rules around eligibility for equity listings will hinder the Emirates’ tech sectors if they aren’t changed.
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Uneven progress towards financial market reform across the continent continues to pose a challenge for ambitious African corporates.
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Corporate and development banks want their capital to reach the smallest and most impactful of SMEs in frontier markets. Traditional credit ratings and risk assessments can get in the way.
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A securitization of pay-as-you-go electricity bills to fund wider access to electricity in Côte d’Ivoire could spark copycat social bonds for affordable housing, telecoms, electricity access and more.
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Barclays hopes to win over investors with new return targets and buyback commitments next February, but it really needs a revival in investment banking.
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Regulators are starting to take a more messaging-based approach to sustainable finance, but stopping greenwashing won’t automatically lead to a transition to net zero.
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The 28th Conference of the Parties starts in Dubai tomorrow. Dubbed the finance COP, conflicting priorities could turn it into a fossil fuel investor roadshow.
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First Bank of Nigeria is the country's third-largest bank, accounting for 10.4% of banking system assets at the end of 2022. Despite tackling a sizeable legacy book of impaired lending, it has built a decent corporate banking business that, by the end of 2022, had an annual turnover of more than N5 billion ($6.4 million).
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While many African countries experienced lower interbank FX turnover and saw their foreign-exchange reserves dwindle last year, there are grounds for optimism that 2023 will turn out to be a better year at both regional and national level.
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Kenyan authorities have cleared Flutterwave of wrongdoing following an anti-money-laundering case in the East African nation. Nevertheless, industry confidence in the Africa-focused payments company remains mixed.
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The local sector is in good shape to weather a short-term conflict. If the war drags on and spreads throughout the region, however, the position is far less clear.
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Data hoarding, ESG illiteracy and credit risk are roadblocks for regional banks looking to establish sustainable supply-chain financing programmes in the Gulf, just as COP28 approaches.
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Turkey’s central bank took another step on the path to normalization when penalties for exceeding interest-rate caps on lending were scrapped last week. It is good news for banks, but will it last?
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In a period marked by rapid technological evolution across its entire business, Bank ABC has made several digital enhancements to its corporate product offering. The bank has been named best corporate bank in Bahrain this year in recognition of these transformative efforts, alongside its involvement in a number of important regional transactions.
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The risk of a new war with Israel will derail any fledgling economic recovery for Lebanon as it attempts to convince private-sector investors of its gas and renewable energy potential.
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Bidding $2.5 billion for the bulk of Credit Suisse’s sub-Saharan Africa ultra-high net-worth private bank book 18 months ago has been a ‘game changer’ for Barclays in the region, the UK bank’s Africa market head Amol Prabhu tells Euromoney.
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Ahead of COP28, the sector needs to focus on lending for energy efficiency in the emerging markets before climate tech startups in developed markets, if decarbonization is the goal.
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Digital sukuk issuance still faces the issue of uneven Shariah interpretation.
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The relaxation of visa rules has turbocharged the recent flow of wealth into Dubai. The nature of these flows can, however, make them a mixed opportunity for the UAE’s private bankers.
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SBM Bank has undertaken several structural and strategic initiatives to enhance its offering for small and medium-sized enterprises over the last year and is Mauritius’s best bank for SMEs as a result.
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Zenith Bank wins best bank for digital solutions in Nigeria following a period of robust growth across its digital channels.
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Rawbank is the Democratic Republic of the Congo's best bank for digital solutions this year – a challenge in a country where much of the population doesn't have access to the internet or mobile banking.
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The banks in each market that have excelled across a range of core banking activities over the past 12 months.
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The Lebanese diaspora has come home to pump fresh cash into the country’s economy, but the resulting price surge is a further blow to the lira-earning population.
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The banks in each market that have excelled across a range of core banking activities over the past 12 months.
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After years of easy Eurobond access and ramped-up Chinese lending, developing economies are now caught between rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions, making debt restructurings more numerous and more complicated. Despite some progress in inter-creditor talks, many debtor nations face an uncertain financial future.
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After buying parts of BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, Orabank is African banking group Vista’s boldest acquisition yet. Despite coups and sovereign debt distress, Vista’s founder and chairman Simon Tiemtoré tells Euromoney how he can succeed where other higher profile ventures have failed.
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Good things could be in store for Libya if harmony at the central bank spreads to the government and sovereign fund.
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ADIB’s almost 10-times oversubscribed additional tier-1 issuance shows interest in the product is alive and well for the right issuer, but demand won’t be the same for every bank.
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Wealth management had a tough 2022. Assets under management fell across the board, undermined by global uncertainty. But one region is not struggling. More wealth than ever is being formed in the Middle East, and more of it than ever is staying there. Private banks are hiring as fast as they can and expanding their repertoire in Shariah-compliant asset classes.
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The Kingdom’s government has announced that international firms – many of whom are based in Dubai – that want to work with the state will need to base their regional headquarters in Saudi.
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Capital market transactions might be few and far between in Tanzania, but when they do happen, Stanbic Bank Tanzania is often on the deal.
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No African lender can match Ecobank Transnational’s reach. The Togo-based financial institution is a worthy winner of this year’s award for Africa’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises – the second year in a row it has received the title.
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A combination of rising interest rates, depreciating currencies and poor credit ratings make it difficult for African economies to tap into global financial markets to fund their sustainable transition. At the same time, the impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly severe across the continent.
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For the second year in a row, Equity Bank is Africa’s best bank for corporate responsibility. Under the leadership of group CEO James Mwangi, Equity Bank continues to create shared value for clients and citizens across its banking business, as well as its foundation, which dates back to 2008.
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Standard Bank Wealth & Investment stands head and shoulders above the wealth management competition in Africa. The South African bank is a regional powerhouse in the sector, with private banking offices in 14 African markets, including Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, as well as the whole of southern Africa.
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Best Bank: Banco Angolano De InvestimentosBest Investment Bank: Standard Chartered Angola
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Compared with European banks that have built African retail operations, Deutsche Bank might not be as well-known as an Africa-focused lender. But it has long had important corporate and investment banking operations on the continent. It is one of the largest correspondent banks for African financial institutions and in the previous decade it helped many African sovereigns issue debut international bonds.
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In investment banking, Citi continues to benefit from the combination of a leading global network and an on the ground presence in Africa that is much bigger than most other international firms.
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Like most of South Africa’s big banks, Nedbank is on a mission to reform and re-engineer its IT system, using it to attract new business, cut costs and roll out new services.
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Africa’s best bank for transaction services, Societe Generale operates in 19 countries in Africa, with 4.3 million clients, including 175,000 corporate clients. Its global transaction and payment services team is led by Alexandre Maymat.
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In many African countries, Standard Bank is not as large as it would like to be. But it has a physical presence in 20 African countries and is already by far the biggest pan-African group in terms of its scale in the main sub-Saharan markets, the size of its balance sheet and its absolute profit.
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Evidence of an ability to leverage networks across Africa and beyond has helped Citi win the title of Africa’s best bank for advisory this year. While the firm has a strong franchise in South Africa, the rest of the continent is now becoming more important as a growth market. This award is therefore largely thanks to the team led by chairman of investment banking for Middle East and Africa, Miguel Azevedo, and Claude-Stephanie Ngningha, Citi’s head of investment banking in Africa outside South Africa and Egypt.
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Advantageous financial services reforms, abundant natural resources and a young population means there is plenty of potential for long-term economic growth in Angola. The banking sector is dominated by six large lenders, with very little competition from non-bank institutions.
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2023 is shaping up to be the year of the pause for the region’s capital markets.
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The former Credit Suisse chief is championing Africa.
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What African fintechs need is supportive regulation, local capital and the development of talent. Singapore wants to show them the way.
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Several Gulf Cooperation Council countries have bank consolidation at the core of economic visions. As governments push for national champions, pressure is building across the industry as banks jostle for position.
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Tyme Bank’s experience with grant recipients in South Africa demonstrates the need to link up banking innovation to the real-world requirements of customers.
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All big banks say they are leaders in transaction services, few really are. HSBC is always in contention for this award and takes the honours after a year full of new services and innovation.
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HSBC wins the award for the Middle East’s best bank for financing this year. During the awards period the bank topped the equity capital markets league tables, completing 12 deals – more than any other financial institution – worth just over $4 billion, according to Dealogic.
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Best Bank: National Bank of BahrainBest Investment Bank: Sico Bank
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Once again, Emirates NBD walks away with the award for the Middle East’s best bank. The Dubai bank posted net profit of $3.54 billion in the full year 2022, up 40% year on year, boosted by strong returns from investment banking, treasury sales income and trade finance. It has continued that strong performance in the current year, posting a first-quarter 2023 profit of $1.63 billion, bolstered by net interest income of $1.96 billion, up 69% year on year.
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Kuwaiti citizens are proud of the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the country’s largest bank by assets, and for good reason. NBK views itself as a pillar of the corporate and financial community. It deserves to win this award for several reasons, starting with its willingness to connect with worthy new initiatives.
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Mashreq Bank is a perennial winner of this award. Can any other regional lender compete with its ambition to be not just the best digital bank in the region but one of the best in the world? So far at least answer is a resounding ‘no’.
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In the Middle East, sustainability is about adaptation, not just to the increasingly stark evidence of climate change but also to the global demand for a more diversified energy mix to lessen fossil-fuel extraction.
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UBS continues to assert its position as the Middle East’s best bank for wealth management. It won this award last year and the one before that – and the one before that. It is active in every important market, continues to expand its reach and innovates intelligently, introducing products tailored to regional clients’ specific needs.
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In some years this award is a close decision, with two or three banks vying for the prize. This wasn’t one of those years.
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Arab Bank has long been at the forefront of innovation in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. Its regional reach gives it the kind of presence few can match. At the time of writing, the Jordanian bank oversees a network of 600-plus branches on five continents and boasts offices in Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
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Citi is the standout winner of the award for the region’s best bank for advisory in 2023. In a strong year for M&A, it was way ahead of the pack. It advised on 18 completed deals collectively worth $32.1 billion, giving it a 26.5% share of the market, according to data from Dealogic.
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The green transition is boosting demand for key metals and Africa’s commodity markets are under pressure to increase extraction. But buyer awareness of Scope 3 emissions means that processes need to be cleaned up and fast.
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If Olam Agri’s planned dual-listing IPO goes ahead in June it will have a bit of everything: a Singapore-Saudi listing, geopolitics and sovereign funds jostling to defend their nations against strain in global food security.
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Kuwait Finance House’s 45th year in business was a banner one. In October 2022, the team led by acting chief executive Abdulwahab Iesa Alrushood completed the acquisition of Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank to create the world’s second-largest Islamic bank.
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Since its inception in 2004, Boubyan Bank has carved out a specific niche in a Kuwaiti market dominated by bigger and more established players. As chief executive Abdullah Al-Tuwaijri puts it, three words serve as the guiding star for the bank’s strategy: “modern, attractive and digital.”