Britain and the EU came to an agreement on data-sharing on Monday, in a step towards resolving issues stemming from post-Brexit rules governing trade with Northern Ireland, the two sides said.
The agreement was critical to further talks on the trading regulations known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said after a meeting in London.
“They agreed that while a range of critical issues need to be resolved to find a way forward, an agreement was reached today on the way forward regarding the specific question of the EU's access to UK IT systems,” they said in a joint statement.
“They noted this work was a critical prerequisite to building trust and providing assurance, and provided a new basis for EU-UK discussions.”
The meeting was described as “cordial and constructive”.
“We share the same focus — finding the best outcome for Northern Ireland,” said Mr Cleverly on Twitter.
Mr Sefcovic tweeted that EU and UK teams “will work rapidly to scope potential for solutions in different areas”. They will measure progress next Monday.
Hopes are high that the EU and the UK can reach an agreement in negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol in the coming weeks following Rishi Sunak’s appointment as UK Prime Minister in late October, an EU official told The National last week.
Officials have two possible deadlines in mind. The first is next Thursday, which is the deadline for the UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to call elections. The second is the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended a long-running conflict in Northern Ireland, on April 10.
Brussels is concerned that the UK is not making checks on products entering Northern Ireland from Britain as stipulated in the Northern Ireland Protocol, which came into force in January 2021, following Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
The EU worries that a lack of checks would promote smuggling or tax dodging but Britain has tried to keep checks at a minimum to promote the free flow of goods.
Checks are to be conducted in the Irish Sea to avoid a hard land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, amid fears that a land border would revive tensions on the island.
The protocol stipulates that the UK should share live customs data with the EU about trade between Northern Ireland and Britain to ease the EU's concerns.
The UK delayed building the necessary system, meaning tests were not carried out before late 2022.
“I think we've made some progress in recent weeks, but we're not quite there yet,” Ireland's foreign affairs minister at the time, Simon Coveney, said in December.
The issue has overshadowed Northern Irish politics since it was agreed, as members of the unionist community are unhappy with the difficulties it creates for trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The Democratic Unionist Party has refused to co-operate with forming a devolved executive in Belfast until issues with the agreement are resolved.
'Nope'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Jordan%20Peele%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Daniel%20Kaluuya%2C%20Keke%20Palmer%2C%20Brandon%20Perea%2C%20Steven%20Yeun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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.”
