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Are regional Middle East investment banks starting to go global?
It’s no secret that investment banks in the Middle East are having a hard time currently. Headcount has been pared back in the international players as deal activity has dried up, but redundancies have been most prolific within the regional behemoths. A few examples of regional investment banking players that have been forced to roll [...]
Crisis hit Gulf Finance House is eyeing growth opportunities again
Before the financial crisis took hold in 2008, Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House was expanding rapidly. At its peak, the firm employed more than 300 people. Now, it has a headcount of just 55. As investment banking activity plummeted, along with the property prices in the region, Gulf Finance House was hit particularly [...]
Nightmare for junior corporate financiers with private equity aspirations: banks are identifying and pre-emptively sacking them
There’s one thing worse than being an analyst or 1st year associate spending your every waking hour on pitchbooks, and that’s being an analyst or associate spending your every waking hour on pitchbooks whilst trying to time for interviewing with private equity funds. Recruiters working with private equity funds in London say there’s a lot [...]
The $220k retail banking roles for Emiratis in the UAE
Any retail banking branch manager positions in the UAE have to be filled by Emiratis and, as we’ve pointed to previously, most national candidates end up in retail or commercial banking positions. Compared to investment banking, where the work is competitive and the hours are long, these roles are relatively easy. And, with the sort [...]
Q&A with an anonymous senior fund manager: Is fund management really such a well paid, stress-free career:
Q: Let’s get right down to business. We’ve already heard the juicy bits of your escape from the back office – now we’d like to step into your shoes. So what do you actually do as a fund manager? How do you invest? A: It really depends. The industry encompasses so many different methods of [...]
Four things you must have to secure a wealth management role in the Middle East
The number of wealth managers looking to tap into the growing pool of investable assets in the Middle East is on an upward trajectory. The likes of Barclays Wealth, Coutts, Jefferies, J.P. Morgan, Lombard Odier, Merrill Lynch and UBS have all been talking up MENA expansion plans currently, and a number of other firms have [...]
Opportunities coming at new UAE regulator and EBRD
Shake-ups are coming to the way that financial services firms are regulated in the UAE and job opportunities are being created. At the same time, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is targeting the Middle East and hiring for its new offices. Firstly, there’s the new beefed Securities and Commodities Association, which has [...]
Coutts is hiring. Be aware that it only wants senior people and may pay a very big base and quite a small bonus
Coutts has let it be known that it’s looking for private bankers. In today’s Financial Times, Michael Morley, chief executive of Coutts UK, elaborates on the bank’s appetite for hiring. Morley says Coutts wants ‘senior executives’ in the UK, the Middle East, Asia, Switzerland and eastern Europe. 20 senior executives have come already, says Morley. [...]
Barclays’ MENA expansion plan is kicking off
Barclays is expanding in the Middle East and has plans to hire as many as 100 people over the next six months. This already appears to be kicking off. The bank has named Alexander Harrison as head of debt finance, UAE and GCC, and this is expected to be an area of expansion for the [...]
Q&A: RBS’s Middle East CEO on why arrogance has no place in investment banking
Simon Penney, chief executive for the Middle East and Africa at Royal Bank of Scotland, who oversees its investment banking activity in the region, has been with the same firm for over 12 years. You might assume, therefore, that he’s not the overly adventurous type. The reality is, however, that he has travelled the world [...]
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