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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 [...]
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 [...]
An international Islamic investment bank is looking to expand in the Middle East
For all the pomp around Islamic finance, it’s still rare that a dedicated Islamic institution actively talks up expansion plans, particularly in more sophisticated areas of the industry. However, Bank of London and the Middle East is moving into the region and talking about growth, particularly in its private and corporate banking business, according to [...]
If you work anywhere in investment banking, you should familiarise yourself with Stuart Gulliver’s vision of the future
Today is HSBC investor day. Stuart Gulliver made a presentation. So did Sean O’Sullivan (COO) and so did Ian McKay (CFO). You may think HSBC is no massive deal in investment banking. But this would be wrong. In the first quarter, net revenues in the investment bank were $5.6bn, versus $8bn at Citi, and $4.7bn [...]
Q&A: JPMorgan’s Asia Pac CTO says JPMorgan is hiring 100 technologists in Singapore and that people like working there so much that only 3% leave
We spoke to Stewart Carmichael, chief technology officer of JPMorgan in Asia Pac. This is what he told us. Q: Did you always want to work in financial services? No, I originally joined a technology firm because I was looking to leverage on the education I had in computer science. Twenty five years ago, there [...]
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