June 19, 2019

American Express, the US financial services and credit card firm, is targeting single-digit revenue growth in the Middle East this year, as it boosts its number of merchant partnerships and launches new products and services amid higher consumer spending.

“The reason we are seeing growth is because we are expanding and targeting new segments and introducing new products,” said Mazin Khoury, chief executive of American Express Middle East, in an interview with The National. “It’s not double-digit growth, but we are seeing growth in spending overall in the region and believe that will continue.”

Mr"...

June 19, 2019

Visa (NYSE: V) today announced global adoption of its sensory branding suite in 25 countries via more than a dozen new partnerships. The suite is comprised of sound, animation and haptic brand cues that occur with a Visa payment transaction. In a digital world increasingly filled with voice-commands, networked appliances and unattended retail environments, Visa’s sensory branding cues offer new ways to enhance the customer experience"...

June 18, 2019

ABU DHABI, 17th June, 2019 (WAM) -- The Board of Directors of the Central Bank of the UAE, CBUAE, held its fifth meeting for 2019 under the chairmanship of Hareb Masood Al Darmaki, the Chairman of the Board at bank's Head Office in Abu Dhabi.

The meeting reviewed Quarterly Financial System Surveillance Report for the Q1 2019, Macroprudential Stance Report for the Q1 2019 and Report on 2019 top-down stress testing results, presented by the Financial Stability Department. The reports covered developments with respect to the stability of the UAE banking and financial system.

The"...

June 17, 2019

(WAM) -- May survey data for Dubai’s private sector non-oil economy continued the recent twin themes of strengthening output growth and weak job creation. Total business activity increased at the strongest rate since the series was first compiled in 2010. In contrast, employment rose at a marginal rate that was well below the long-run trend. Activity growth remained partly driven by competitive pricing, notably in the construction and wholesale and retail sectors.

The seasonally adjusted Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker Index – a composite indicator designed to give an overview of operating conditions in the non-oil private sector"...

June 16, 2019

There is a massive emergence of fintech firms that will disrupt the banking industry, but they have to partner with big enterprises to get customers, speakers said at a seminar organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) - Dubai Chapter on Saturday.

Jayesh Patel, head of Liv. Digital Bank from Emirates NBD, said digital banks are emerging across the globe in major markets such as India, the US and the UAE.

'There is a massive emergence of new fintech and platforms that are going to disrupt our industry. There are quite a number of digital"...

June 16, 2019

ABU DHABI, 15th June, 2019 (WAM) -- As part of its plan to modernise work mechanisms in the federal government, the UAE Cabinet has restructured the Board of Directors of the Emirates Development Bank, EDB.

The eight-member board will be chaired by Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, and will serve a three-year term.

The EDB was established to contribute to the economic and social development of the UAE as a key partner in providing financial services for development.

The"...

June 12, 2019

SoftBank Group is working with Goldman Sachs Group to raise money for its second $100 billion technology investment fund and will begin formally soliciting investors in July, according to people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank and its bankers, which also include Centricus and Cantor Fitzgerald, have held preliminary talks with sovereign wealth funds from Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kazakhstan and Oman, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

SoftBank may contribute $40 billion to $50 billion, up from $28 billion in the first fund,"...

June 11, 2019

ABU DHABI, 10th June, 2019 (WAM) -- First Abu Dhabi Bank, FAB, has signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi Social Support Authority, ADSSA, to provide a state-of-the-art Application Programming Interface, API, solution.

According to the memorandum of understanding was signed by Hamad Ali Al Dhaheri, Director-General of the ADSSA, and Hana Al Rostamani, FAB’s Group Head of Personal Banking, pre-paid cards and processes payments will be issued to support ADSSA’s financial aid programme for limited-income Emirati families.

These cards will enable users to withdraw"...

June 11, 2019

DUBAI, 10th June, 2019 (WAM) -- ENOC Group has secured a five-year US$690 million term loan from a Chinese consortium of banks as China’s biggest financial institutions endorse the Group’s operational and financial health.

The term loan will finance general corporate purposes as ENOC continues to fuel the local economy through its business divisions in exploration and production, supply and operations, terminals, fuel retail, aviation fuel and petroleum products for commercial and industrial use.

The consortium consists of Industrial and Commercial Bank"...

June 7, 2019

Today, Visa (NYSE:V) announced a new strategic agreement with Western Union (NYSE:WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement. Western Union will implement Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time1 push payments platform in an effort to bring speed and transparency to the process of sending money around the world. This collaboration reinforces Visa’s commitment to modernize how payments are made around the world. Once Western Union’s implementation of Visa Direct is live, Western Union will be able to offer customers an expedited remittance service onto cards with more transparency and an enhanced user experience for both senders and receivers. Western Union and Visa share a vision for modern money movement; this expanded service is intended to make cross border payments more reliable and efficient than ever before. Nearly $80 trillion (US) of money is sent via a wire transfer or bank account globally today2, but the process is harder and more complex than it should be. Money can take days to arrive because of outdated, multi-step, costly methods. 85% of all transactions are still in cash, or other physical currency.3 The digitization and improvement of these solutions are core to both Visa’s and Western Union’s payment modernization strategies. “Together Visa Direct and Western Union are collaborating with plans to scale real-time4 cross border payments to businesses and......