On the face of it, the story of financial markets and their regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), looks like just another manifestation of Lebanese chaos. Institutions and measures that were prescribed by law in context of the CMA’s creation (in this case, Law 161 of 2011) are overdue in their implementation. Not just in…
The Gulf after oil
It is timely and prudent to review the policies of Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The region, which is known for deriving much of its economic revenues from the exporting of oil, entered difficult fiscal waters around 2014. It is in need of new ideas for economic development, given the confluence in 2016 of uncertainty about…
Rocky relations
Just a few years ago Lebanese banks were apprehensively awaiting regulations they expected would impact business. These arrived with the United States’ introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), alongside international standards for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF), as well as the implementation of Basel 3 regulations – a framework for basically…
The twisted tale of the Lebanese Canadian Bank
You thought it was over, didn’t you? Assuming you remember the rise and demise of Lebanese Canadian Bank, from its ascendance in the 1990s until it was struck by US allegations of terrorism finance and money laundering (for Hezbollah) in 2011. Executive trusts that you also know of the subsequent investigations and negotiations. They resulted…
Meet the megas
The confidence many developers have in the Lebanese real estate market is certainly not inspired by the numbers. On paper 2015 and 2016 look like the two worst years since 2007, yet this year and last have seen the launch of a handful of large-scale residential projects – one of which is the largest development…
Finding the funding for big tech dreams
Aasim Saied has some unorthodox ideas about how technology entrepreneurs should fundraise and how best to structure a board of directors. Saied founded Akyumen, a self-described “digital products company committed to opening the door to innovation and advancing access to education through state of the art niche products that bring technology directly to your hands.”…
The Uni-leader
When Lebanon-based Fattal Holding, agents and distributors for numerous global brands in six countries of the Middle East and North Africa region, celebrated the 80th anniversary of their partnership with consumer goods multinational Unilever, the occasion was auspicious enough to bring Unilever Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman to Beirut. Executive used the rare opportunity to…
Video: Global Finance through Lebanese eyes
Natacha Tannous interviews Marc Malek of Conquest Capital and L.I.F.E
Money talk
Financial markets have rallied significantly from mid-February to mid-March, supported by several events including, but not limited to, the G20 summit, the Chinese National People’s Congress meeting, the expansion of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) quantitative easing and the Federal Open Market Committee’s March session being more dovish than expected. So what’s next for global…
The real cost of regulations
In our relentless pursuit to unravel the equities markets’ mysteries of 2016, Executive sat down for a further conversation with Paul Donovan, the managing director, Global Economics at UBS Investment Bank. E What do you make of market behaviors in the first six weeks of 2016? One always expects some volatility but market volatility…