Money & Business - Gulf Insider

6 years ago

Interview: President & Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group

Here’s an interview with Adnan Ahmed Yousif, President & Chief Executive, Al Baraka Banking Group. It’s been a year since the launch of Islamic challenger bank Insha. How is Insha doing? With low interest rates and volatile markets, where do you see growth coming from? How does your organisation embrace open banking? The response on Insha is extremely encouraging. In fact, in early 2020, we have witnessed a double growth in terms of the number of customers and we registered an average growth rate of 32% on transactions per month. Like several other challenger banks, our strategy is it is to focus initially on gaining a strong customer base and providing them with basic services and then grow accordingly. Going forward, we plan to expand into new European markets, introduce more products and services, and finally of course, serve new customer segments. We have committed a dedicated team on the Insha project in order to make this bank a success. Concerning open banking, last year we launched, the Al Baraka Global API Portal that has more than 25 APIs under six main categories: accounts, money transfers, financings, credit cards, information services and investment products. The portal is open to global […]

6 years ago

Avoid these five investment blunders during a crisis

Was “let’s sell for now and wait for the dust to settle”, one of your mantras during the recent market shock? There are some common mistakes made during a crisis. Sometimes they come down to individual decisions. Often, they are as simple as financial advice gone wrong. Here are my top five common blunders that investors may encounter during a crisis. Mistake 1: “Let’s sell for now and wait for the dust to settle.” The equivalent for cash-rich investors would be “Let’s keep the cash and wait for the dust to settle”. The key S&P500 benchmark on Wall Street, widely considered an indicator of global market sentiment, has rebounded by more than 60 per cent since its low on March 23, 2020 and most investors that have not bought are still in waiting mode. An alternative view Instead of waiting, it is much better to build a solid exposure structured around well-defined investment themes, such as the US market and China. Potential winning infrastructure sectors might include IT & Communications, Healthcare, and Industrials. Other attractive opportunities may also be found within the Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples spaces. (Consumer Discretionary stocks represent companies producing non-essential goods and services. Consumers tend […]

6 years ago

Gold: Past the peak?

Short-term traders rather than safe-haven seekers have pushed gold prides to record-highs in summer. It looks like prices have moved past their peak for now. The recent sell-off in the gold market brought back memories of the early days of the coronavirus crisis in March. Rapidly rising infection rates and fears of broad-based lockdowns triggered a risk-off move in financial markets, putting pressure on equities and spilling over into the gold market as the US dollar strengthened. While counterintuitive at first sight, such moves are not unusual for gold in times when the risk perception in financial markets changes and investors dump risky assets for US dollars. For many investors, the US dollar itself still is a safe haven. While a stronger US dollar and slightly higher – or rather slightly less negative – US real bond yields look like the triggers of the recent sell-off, neither the one nor the other is sufficient to explain it. Instead, the explanation is rather that trend followers and technical traders have again exited the market after piling into gold during the record run in July and early August. While gold is a safe haven which has proven its track record multiple times […]

6 years ago

The return of face-to-face learning – Dave McMaster, ASB Bahrain

Gulf Insider interviews Dave McMaster, Director of theAmerican School of Bahrain (ASB). What makes the American School of Bahrain different? I think one of the main differentiators would be our campus. The building itself was purpose built to include innovative spaces like the maker-space room, food technology lab, six science labs, two libraries and more. Our staff comes from 11 different countries,with a majority of North Americans trained in the US and Canada – it’s a very diverse group and I think that makes us unique. In addition to that, our founding organization, Esol Education, connects us with a global school network, accreditation bodies and educational collaborations with universities, such as MIT CSAIL Lab’s App Inventor and Stanford University’s Pre-collegiate Program. Our Advanced American Curriculum includes STEAM learning, PBL, coding and design thinking. We also focus on extracurriculars,performing & fine arts,sports and service projects. At ASB,we are committed to developing the whole child and providing a happy and supportive learning environment! How have you been able to extend support to students and parents during the crisis? The best support we can provide right now is trying to be as communicative as we can with parents. In contrast to my experience […]

6 years ago

Leading towards a lifetime of success

Gulf Insider interviews Dr. Susan E. Saxton, Founding President of the American University of Bahrain. When did you realize the pandemic was about to impact your day-to-day life and work? What immediate actions did you take and how ready was AUBH to adopt these actions? COVID-19 has changed the way that institutions globally deliver education,and the way that students approach their futures. As soon as we saw the pandemic take hold in Europe, we pro-actively mobilized our technological tools to be ready to move to an online modality. AUBH, as an institution, is in a fortunate position due to the structure of our business as a start-up, which means that we are naturally able to adapt and change very quickly. We moved to distance learning seamlessly, without missing any class time. I’m pleased that all of us, including staff, students, and support teams, have demonstrated the ability and desire to adapt and try new teaching and learning methodologies. We added measures to assist students who have had to return from studying abroad, who may not have access to all the necessary documents due to exam disruption. Being a recognized Cambridge English testing center, we were also able to offer applicants […]

6 years ago

Investing in tomorrow – An interview with Christian Gattiker, Bank Julius Baer

In the below interview, Christian Gattiker, Head of Research at Swiss Wealth Manager, Bank Julius Baer talks about how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the way clients view investments and what are the key trends shaping the world of tomorrow. How would you describe the current investment scenario in a world that is still tackling the challenges presented by the pandemic? The current investment regime is a globally synchronised and mostly V-shaped recovery, helped by heavy monetary and fiscal stimuli. The world economy entered a synchronised shock-like recession in H1 2020 and is now recovering at different speeds. The main divergence in the speed of the recovery is the amount of fiscal and monetary stimulus available. The US, China and Japan have experienced a 10% downswing in economic output, while Continental Europe has experienced 15% and the UK 20%. Emerging markets have been hit hard but at varying degrees by the pandemic, with Latin America still in the doldrums. We expect most of the mature economies to compensate for about half of the shortfall during Q3, with a much slower pace thereafter. China is the exception, since the world’s second largest economy is back at pre-crisis levels as we speak […]

6 years ago

Equity markets – A ray of opportunity in turbulent times?

Patrik Lang, Head of Equity Research and Strategy, Bank Julius Baer In March, within a few weeks, the outbreak of the coronavirus led to an unprecedented sell-off on global equity markets, with the S&P 500 dropping 35%. From mid-March onwards, the S&P 500 started an equally spectacular rally, with the S&P 500 gaining almost 50% within less than three months. This came as a surprise to many analysts as fear of a second wave of infection are widespread. In addition to this, many economists only expect an anemic recovery. Equity markets – what to expect Against this backdrop, many investors are anticipating a second market crash. In our view, a major correction is rather unlikely because the economic recovery has already begun and a second wave of infection is unlikely to lead to a general lockdown because most countries will be better prepared for the second wave than they had been for the first one. Countries like Taiwan and South Korea have proven that testing and tracing is a much more efficient way to deal with the pandemic than locking down entire economies. It can be assumed that most countries will follow this example at least as long as no […]

7 years ago

The New Costa Experience in Bahrain

Why did you choose the Food and Beverage industry for your new venture? One of the driving forces of our business group is developing business opportunities. We are here to make profits but with something sustainable and in line with our quality and ethical standards. Now, the food business serves a greater good and provides people with a service they appreciate. Food has a certain quality standard and if you pick the right quality partners, you have succeeded in achieving that quality. We also wanted to diversify our portfolio and the food business seemed to be a potentially profitable and sustainable one. Can you tell us more about Costa Coffee and Al Zayani partnership? We never found the right opportunity to deal with the food franchising business. We wanted something with credibility so that we could develop on it. When the Costa opportunity came, it was available as a master franchise for different territories. We chose to bid only for the Bahrain area because we wanted a global brand which is among the top three brands. At the same time, we wanted something that could be scaled up, teach us the business, and give us a head start. Costa seemed […]

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Interview: President & Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group

Avoid these five investment blunders during a crisis

Gold: Past the peak?

The return of face-to-face learning – Dave McMaster, ASB Bahrain

Leading towards a lifetime of success

Investing in tomorrow – An interview with Christian Gattiker, Bank Julius Baer

Equity markets – A ray of opportunity in turbulent times?

The New Costa Experience in Bahrain

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