January 19, 2020

Dubai-based Fajr Capital has announced the sale of its significant minority stake in Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD), Brunei’s largest bank, to Brunei Investment Agency.

Fajr Capital invested in BIBD in September 2010 with a commitment to transform the bank into a world-class financial services institution.

Fajr Capital said it has worked alongside BIBD’s shareholders to devise and begin implementation of a new strategy which resulted in enhanced customer experience, introduction of internet banking and new digital platforms, international expansion"...

January 15, 2020

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in his capacity as the Ruler of Dubai, has enacted the Employment Law Amendment Law, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) announced on Tuesday.

The Amendment Law introduces the new Qualifying Scheme workplace savings scheme in the DIFC, replacing the current end-of-service gratuity payment regime that has been in place since the inception of the DIFC in 2004.

The new regime commences on February 1, from which employers will make mandatory monthly contributions to a professionally managed and regulated savings plan.

January 15, 2020

Bank of America reported its fourth-quarter 2019 financial results today. The news release, supplemental filing and investor presentation can be accessed in the following ways: This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200115005410/en/ Bank of America newsroom at https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com Bank of America Investor Relations website at http://investor.bankofamerica.com Business Wire’s news webpage at http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/news Investor Conference Call information: Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan and Chief Financial Officer Paul Donofrio will discuss the financial results in a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET today. For a listen-only connection to the conference call, dial 1.877.200.4456 (U.S.) or 1.785.424.1732 (international), and the conference ID is 79795. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. Investors can also listen to a live audio webcast of the conference call and view the presentation slides by visiting the “Events and Presentations” section of the company’s Investor Relations website. Replay information for Investor Conference......

January 8, 2020

Mashreq has announced that it has signed an agreement with Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) which will enable the bank to open Escrow accounts for owners' associations in DIFC's jurisdiction.

Under DIFC regulations, Mashreq Bank is also registered to provide services to owners' association companies. The agreement was signed by Zain Qureshi, managing director and head of Real Estate Finance and Advisory at Mashreq Bank and Jaber Al Suwaidi, senior vice president and registrar of Real Property at the DIFC Authority.

The Escrow account agreement"...

January 7, 2020

VakıfBank, Turkey's fourth-largest bank, introduced a new banking assistant, “ViBi” to its mobile banking app, which currently has 4.2 million users. The assistant, developed in partnership with Sestek, a leading AI and speech technologies company. The “mobile banking assistant” which went live in only 8 months, can answer more than 5,000 questions and perform more than 300 banking transactions. Thanks to Sestek’s conversational AI technologies, VakıfBank customers can interact with ViBi through speech. Sestek is the company behind world's first Urdu-speaking virtual assistant introduced at the beginning of this year.

“We"...

January 5, 2020

The UAE’s banking system increased the total value of financial facilitations provided to retail commerce to Dh50.4 billion ($13.72 billion) during the first nine months of 2019, according to statistics issued by the Central Bank of the UAE.

At the end of September 2019, the value of financial facilitations provided to retail commerce grew by 5.4 percent or Dh2.6 billion compared to the end of December 2018, said a Wam news agency report.

The"...

December 26, 2019

Dubai - As the UAE economy grew over the years, the UAE dirham has also emerged stronger against subcontinent currencies as well as other major countries' units in the last 10 years due to a host of internal as well as external factors.

Analysts say that, going forward, the UAE dirham will gain against most of the subcontinent currencies while the US dollar will remain the world's dominant currency and maintains its influence in the world economy over the next 10 years. While some other major currencies such as the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee and the Russian rouble will also gain more influence as their economies will grow bigger"...

December 26, 2019

ABU DHABI, 25th December, 2019 (WAM) -- The Central Bank of the UAE, CBUAE, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with Emirates Foundation to roll out financial literacy programmes through Emirates Foundation’s ‘Esref Sah’ programme, which aims to raise financial awareness among youth and educate them on ways of managing their finances.

The MoU was signed by Saif Hadef AlShamsi, Deputy Governor of CBUAE, and Ahmed Talib Al Shamsi, Acting CEO of Emirates Foundation.

This partnership comes as part of the Central Bank’s efforts to achieve"...

December 24, 2019

The UAE’s federal export credit company Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Export Credit Guarantee Agency of Oman (Credit Oman) to enhance the trade and economic cooperation between the UAE and Oman.

The agreement was signed during the 10th Aman Union General Assembly recently held in Muscat. The MoU was signed by Massimo Falcioni, CEO of ECI and Sheikh Khalil bin Ahmed al Harthy, recently appointed CEO of Credit Oman, according to a press release.

This partnership will provide incentives to UAE businesses that"...

December 23, 2019

LONDON/ABU DHABI, 22nd December, 2019 (WAM) -- The Bank of New York Mellon, BNY Mellon, has opened a representative office at Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM. The representative office will provide support for existing and prospective clients in the region, seeking access to the firm’s global capabilities.

BNY Mellon has been in Abu Dhabi since 1998 and has been conducting business in the Middle East and Africa for over 100 years. The company opened its first representative office in Lebanon in 1963 and was granted a branch licence in 2008 by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

Commenting"...