Articles from the author

The latest ATM scam has sent an alarming message to the banking sector. Who is responsible for the security of banking transactions? Is it the banks or the customers?

The domination of large national banks over the UAE market has been eroding drastically over the last couple of years. Foreign banks as well as smaller national banks are eating into the market of big five national banks.

For Michael Hardwick Tomalin, the chief executive officer of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the number two bank in the UAE in terms of both assets and net profit, steering his bank through a tough period is not a big deal.

Despite the series of market boosting announcements as well as a record half year net profit posted by the company during last week, Emaar Properties share price on Dubai Financial Market (DFM) kept falling during the last three days.

Moody's has categorically stated that its decision to withdraw the country ceiling rating of Iran recently has not been prompted by pressures from the U.S. government.

The home finance market is hotting up, with Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) preparing to come out with the first Islamic finance package to buy homes in Emaar Properties.

The slow growth or no growth in the money exchange house branch network in the UAE over the last few years, raises the vital question of whether the growth of this financial services industry has reached saturation point.

Emaar Properties enjoys the lowest market price/book value ratio among the shares listed on the UAE stock markets as of June end, 2002.

Even as provisions against bad loans increased for the group, the UAE operations of HSBC Bank Middle East recovered a significant amount of bad debts in the first half of this year.

The UAE's debt market is also maturing. Until Emirates airline entered the domestic bond market with a bang in 2001 garnering Dh1.5 billion - much more than the airline had initially planned, the financial centres, the world over, have never bothered to take UAE seriously.

Even as most of the public joint stock company (PJSC) banks do not bother to bring out audited semi-annual financial statements

Jewellers speak the language of raffles once again