Dubai: Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) is expanding and reorganising its UAE and Middle East operations as the bank targets 20 per cent average annual growth in revenue from the region over the next five years, V. Shankar, CEO of the bank for Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas told reporters yesterday.
The bank recently got a licence to open a representative office in Libya, and a capital markets licence to start operations in Saudi Arabia.
The Libya office will be opened in the second half of this year. In Saudi Arabia, the bank expects to start operations in a few months.
In the UAE the bank recently opened a new outlet in Dubai and plans to add another one in Abu Dhabi soon.
"We are anticipating strong growth from the UAE and the region. We expect to double our Middle East revenues in the next five years," said Shankar, who moved to the region in the first week of May.
Moving one of the senior-most executives to the UAE is aimed at giving more management focus to growth in the region.
SCB expects to achieve about $4 billion (Dh14.6 billion) in revenue from the region by 2015 compared to the $2 billion reported last year.
As part of the growth strategy for the region, the bank will soon have a chief executive officer exclusively to head the UAE operations while a separate CEO will head the Middle East and North Africa region excluding the UAE. The CEO for the UAE will be based in Abu Dhabi.
The bank expects to achieve strong growth in both corporate and consumer banking divisions in the region. "We are adding 50 additional relationship managers in the priority banking and wealth management divisions to meet the growing demand. Last year the wealth management business suffered, but this year customers are coming back," he said.
In the Middle East, the bank has highest business concentration in the UAE. At the close of 2009, its exposure to UAE based entities was more than $10 billion of the $14 billion value of its Middle East and South Asia corporate loan portfolio.
The bank said it is comfortable with the risks associated with the restructuring and rescheduling of loans by of some of the corporate entities including that of Dubai World.
"We are supportive of the Dubai World's debt restructuring agreement with banks. As far as provisions or any impairment from the deal, we are very comfortable with it," Shankar said.
Commenting on the slow asset growth of regional banks, he said asset growth of banks is more a function of economic growth and risk appetite of customers and asset growth is expected to gather pace as economies recover from the slump.
