Hard to believe that it took another year, but a Canadian bank has finally set-up shop in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Canada’s most international of financial organizations, was the first to make the move.
I discovered when I was through there in November 2008 that despite having 850 international members, DIFC didn’t have one Canadian among them at the time. I should claim “discover”, the Executive Director of DIFC made the point pretty clearly. He invited our firm to be the first, in fact! Obviously, there were reams of Amercian firms coining it at the time, such as Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citibank (C) (despite what the Globe and Mail reported earlier this week, BNS is the first Canadian institution at DIFC, not the first North American one).
Scotia’s focus will likely be on gold trading, but this is great news for any Canadians who intend to make their way to DIFC Week in March. Canada is now on the map, and the federal government has upgraded our post in Dubai to a full Consulate, as well. All good.
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