WEALTH & INVESTMENT
Wealth of Opportunity High Net Worth families in the Middle East are adopting protocols to regulate succession, conflict resolution, business valuations and other key issues to preserve wealth
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he Middle East, one of the world’s hotbeds of wealth creation, has seen an acceleration in trends relating to succession planning, alternate investment vehicles, wealth preservation, digitisation in wealth management and growing interest in sustainable investing. The changes in demographics, technology, environment and social behaviours have set the ground for rapid transformation in wealth management and investment. “With the proliferation of investment products, digitalisation, the heterogeneous nature of client bases and the need to integrate strong sustainability criteria into their business, the wealth manager’s role has become even more complex,” said BNP Paribas.
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The outbreak of COVID-19 created some exceptional challenges for all industries and in wealth management and investment, the pandemic is driving pre-existing trends as wealth managers are changing the way they deliver advice and serve clients. “The wealth management industry is in the midst of significant change as a new generation of investors, whose expectations and preferences have been shaped by new technologies, have brought new standards to the industry in terms of how advice and investment products are being delivered,” said Deloitte. Julius Baer said that there’s an emergence of the next generation of clients—a generation that looks beyond the traditional ways of wealth preservation,
Banking and Finance news in the MEA market
especially in the GCC region. The Swiss wealth manager expanded its regional footprint by setting up an advisory office in Qatar in June to tap into emerging opportunities in the region. M e a n w h i l e, we a l t h m a n a g e rs are being confronted by the task of balancing the traditional approach to risk management with the need to respond quickly to the prolonged pandemic that has created massive changes to their operating environment. Over the past two years, business ethics have moved to the forefront as metrics to identify how well a company is performing amid growing demands from investors that environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues be factored into their portfolios. PwC said that ESG trends are converging and driving rapid social and economic change in the Middle East including the regional government’s recent net-zero pledges in response to climate change—that companies are still digesting their implications. The regulatory environment in the Middle East is fast evolving leaving wealth management firms grappling with a deluge of requirements and expectations
