State Street banker sees pace of reforms in Arabian Gulf accelerating

State Street banker sees pace of reforms in Arabian Gulf accelerating:

The rapid economic changes taking place in the Arabian Gulf economies require a cadre of top global financial institutions to help see them through, and State Street Corporation fits the bill completely.

The 226-year-old American financial group, ranked among the biggest banking businesses in the world, recently joined the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) through its investment banking and asset management unit State Street Global Advisers (SSGA), cementing a presence in the region it has held for 26 years.

Emmanuel Laurina, the 43-year-old Belgian who heads up the Middle East business for State Street, told Arab News that the UAE was a good place to be based to exploit the new economic environment in the region, and especially the business opportunities in Saudi Arabia, undergoing rapid change as a result of the Vision 2030 strategy to diversify away from oil dependency.