Standard Chartered, the UK, Hong Kong and Mumbai-listed lender, has boosted its online foreign-exchange service to help corporate clients enhance their trade relationships with Asia and Africa.
The bank now offers 130 global currencies and real-time quotations through its Straight2Bank platform. The service will save clients time and money by avoiding the risks of fluctuating currency rates when dealing with trade partners outside their economies.
"This value-added service is a demonstration of our commitment to enable the burgeoning trade flow between our clients in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the rest of the world; supporting our clients in their drive to connect with their trading partners in any part of the world," says Ashutosh Kumar, the global head of corporate cash and trade product management at Standard Chartered.
Straight2Bank also offers a "request for quote" feature, which allows customers to avoid calling a bank for currency quotations.
"By selecting their currency and volumes for conversion online, clients receive an almost instantaneous quotation, with the option to accept or decline within minutes," the bank says.
Haytham El Maayergi, the head of transaction banking in the UAE, says the bank's corporate clients in the Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar will have immediate access to the service without incurring set-up costs or installation delays.
Go to www.standardchartered.ae for details.
•••
In more currency news, Mashreq Bank has introduced a yuan account service that will allow Chinese suppliers to invoice and receive settlements from UAE-based buyers.
Dubai's second-biggest lender by market value says it is the first bank in the Emirates to offer a yuan account service.
With about 4,000 Chinese companies operating in the UAE and a 200,000-strong Chinese community, the bank says the service will add value to trade relations between China and the Emirates.
"Trade with China is booming and is expected to hit US$100 billion [Dh367.3bn] by 2015," says Julio De Quesada, the head of Mashreq's corporate investment banking group.
"This service will facilitate the growth, encouraging Middle Eastern companies to settle their transactions in [yuan] with Chinese counterparties, aiding the growing trade with China."
The account also offers foreign-exchange services. For details, go to www.mashreqbank.com.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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