Mashreq Expects Consumer Bank Profit Surge on Wealth, SMEs - Bloomberg

Mashreq Expects Consumer Bank Profit Surge on Wealth, SMEs - Bloomberg:



"Mashreqbank PSC (MASQ), Dubai’s third-biggest lender, expects its consumer business profit to double this year, driven by the wealth management and small companies segments as the United Arab Emirates’ economy rebounds.



Profit at the consumer banking arm may rise to about 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) in 2014 from 450 million dirhams last year, and jump to 2.5 billion dirhams in three years, Farhad Irani, the lender’s head of retail banking said in an interview on June 1. An increase in credit and debit card payments in the U.A.E., where Mashreq is both an issuer and a manager of payments, is also helping boost growth, he said.



“Dubai and the U.A.E. have become the magnet of wealth being attracted from the hinterland, Syrians, Iranians, Jordanians, Africans, Indians in Africa and the U.K.,” Irani said from his office in Dubai. “The big transformation started happening from the second quarter of last year.”"



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