Healthcare and education will be excluded from a planned Gulf-wide value added tax (VAT) scheme, which the Middle East region’s finance ministers have agreed on to shore up revenues in the wake of the recent sharp fall in oil prices.
The idea of an industry body to represent asset managers based in the Middle East in dealing with regulators and government departments may be about to resurface.
Old Mutual International has named two new area sales managers for the United Arab Emirates and Europe.
Western expatriates are staying longer in the Middle East and, while the use of long-term life products still dominates the market, the length of the contract is falling and more money is flowing into mutual fund platforms, Invesco said.
The collapse in oil prices and volatility in the emerging markets induced by China’s slowdown has hurt stocks in the Middle East but has not knocked the region’s major equity markets off their positive trajectory, said Amundi fund manager Remy Marcel.
With Saudi Arabia now open to foreign investment, fund manager Yong Wei Lee, who runs the Emirates MENA Top Companies Fund, is looking to capitalise on the region’s strong potential.
St James’s Place Asia, the re-branded The Henley Group, has seen 40% growth in the number of partners and advisers based at its three offices in the region.
With the Middle East now one of Invesco’s largest marketplaces globally, Nick Tolchard, managing director of international development for the asset manager, charts this unprecedented success story.
The UAE government has given insurance companies operating in the Emirates an extra year, beginning 28 August, to meet the regulatory requirement which forbids combining persons’ insurance and fund accumulation operations with property and liability insurance operations.
Zurich Global Life has appointed Walter Jopp as head of market management for the Middle East and Africa following Paul Dawson’s move to the UK.
US citizens are becoming more diverse when searching for jobs abroad with Dubai leap-frogging London as the top destination, according to research by health benefits provider Aetna International.
Dubai-based financial advisory business Mondial Group has formally launched a new insurance consultancy which has salaried rather than commission remunerated staff.
