Ziad Maalouf: Senior Vice President of MENA Capital SAL E: Would the Lebanese financial industry benefit from a more stringent regulatory environment? Do you see any realistic opportunities for a more advanced regulatory framework that would contribute to greater investor confidence in 2005? The Lebanese financial sector is in a dismal state today. Investor confidence is very low and even though there are some regulations under the auspices of the central bank, in my view this is inadequate because the central bank should only take care of regulating commercial banks and setting monetary policies. There has to be an independent regulator that takes sole care of the financial markets. If we position Lebanon on the map of international investors today, I would say that we are not even a pre-emerging market. In my view it is a regressing market. In the Middle East, Lebanon is considered to have the weakest
