Less than a year ago, bankers in London were being given a stark choice of either “Dubai or goodbye”. As business declined in the rest of the world, it was thought that Dubai could pick up the slack. For a while that was the case, but the depth of the crisis in western banking, combined with the fall in asset values in the Emirates, has brought upheaval to many financial institutions here too.
Despite growing numbers of departures from Dubai’s financial centre, bankers say no-one should write off the emirate as the Gulf’s banking hub.
“Bankers are leaving here partly due to business drying up and investment firms moving staff to cut operational costs,” says Wadah al Taha, a banking and markets analyst based in Dubai. “Business has reduced significantly from what it was in the first quarter of 2008.”
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