Banking sector in ME to become more competitive

The banking sector in the Middle East will become more competitive over the coming two years according to the annual Barclays Corporate Global Banking Survey. The survey was conducted among 200 top executives from leading banking and insurance services providers who attended Barclays fourth annual series of Global Banking Symposiums held in Dubai, London, Frankfurt and Singapore.The research also revealed that banks and financial institutions across the globe are now focused on Asia as the world’s number one region, followed closely by Africa and the Middle East, to provide the industry with significant growth. Conversely, financial institutions see limited potential for growth in Europe and even less so in North America, with the region ranked last among all financial centres in the survey.Matt Tuck, Head of Financial Institutions, Barclays Corporate, said: “There is huge work being done by global banking groups to capitalise on the strong economic growth in developing markets. The move by the financial services sector to generate greater penetration across Africa is also gathering pace.”Matt Tuck added: “Europe is an incredibly important market for the banking industry, but there is a move towards spreading risk by diversifying geographies and also banking income streams.” From / Gulf Today