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from Global Investing:
A scar on Bahrain’s financial marketplace
Bahrain's civil unrest -- which had a one-year anniversary this week -- has taken a toll on the local economy and left a deep scar on the Gulf state's aspiration to become an international financial hub.
A new paper from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Initiative, a research programme at Center for Emerging Market Enterprises (CEME) at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, examines how the political instability of 2011 is threatening Bahrain's efforts in the past 30 years to diversify its economy and develop the financial centre.
Asim Ali from University of Western Ontario and Shatha Al-Aswad, assistant vice president at State Street, argue in the paper that even before the revolt, Bahrain lagged in building the foundations of a truly international hub in the face of competition from Dubai and Qatar.
Unlike DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) and QFC (Qatar Financial Centre), Bahrain insists upon local labor; currently 70% of employees in its banking and financial services industry are Bahrainis. Bahrain’s reluctance to hire non-resident talent has made Dubai...an alternative for those investors looking for a centre with more flexible labor practices such as DIFC provide... The constraints – a lack of formalized institutional and regulatory structure, along with an ad hoc business environment, underdeveloped infrastructure, and under-supplied skilled workforce – have negatively affected its growth and potential to become the financial gateway in the Middle East.
Then came the crackdown of protesters.
Its ruling Al-Khalifa family unleashed a ferocious extra-judicial crackdown against the opposition. It appeared the standard axiom of Gulf ruling families – securing legitimacy and counter-acting political opposition through redistribution of oil wealth – was sorely insufficient to address citizens’ grievances. These led not only to international opprobrium of the Bahrain government but also made foreign businesses reconsider Bahrain as a financial center – with many foreign business shifting workers and operations to Dubai... Indeed, confidence in Bahrain as a financial hub took a major blow along with its image as a stable, tolerant and liberal state.
It remains to be seen what impact last year’s pro-democracy uprising will have on the state of Bahrain and its ambition as a regional financial gateway– especially at a time when Dubai (DIFC) and Qatar (QFC) remain serious contenders to become dominant financial centers in the Middle East.
Bahrain had shown perseverance and strength in building its financial center, but democracy efforts and human right violations were able to threaten the hard work of more than 30 years.
Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, which is leading the country's efforts to diversify its economy away from the hydrocarbon sector, suffered a series of ratings downgrades last year as a result of sovereign downgrades. Mumtalakat is rated triple-B.
from Global Investing:
Iran looms larger on Gulf radar screens
Tensions over Iran may be helping to push up oil prices as traders worry about a widespread embargo on the country's crude oil but markets in neighbouring Gulf energy-rich economies are not benefiting.
One year after the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, investors remain sensitive to political risk in the Middle East.
Debt insurance costs have risen sharply this month for gas exporter Qatar and oil giant Saudi Arabia, just as global worries appear to be easing about the euro zone crisis.
In Qatar, five-year credit default swaps have jumped 30 basis points in the past 10 days to 150 bps, according to Markit -- their highest since July 2009. Saudi CDS have had a similar upward trajectory, while CDS in Israel have reached two-month highs.
Traders say some of this move is just a switching of earlier positions, as Gulf markets performed relatively well at the back end of last year, due to their perceived insulation from euro zone worries.
But as Chavan Bhogaita, head of the markets strategy unit at National Bank of Abu Dhabi, notes:
It has nothing to do with the fundamentals or the credit quality of these sovereigns, but simply about investors getting nervous due to the Iran situation. By buying protection through sovereign CDS, investors are trying to protect themselves against any possible sell-off in the event of an escalation in geopolitical tensions.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
A game of three thirds in Qatar?
FIFA could allow matches at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar to be played over three 30-minute periods if temperatures in the stadiums became dangerously high for the players, a senior stadium engineer told delegates at a conference on Wednesday.
Michael Beavon, a director of Arup Associates who helped to develop the zero-carbon solar technology that will cool the 12 stadiums, told delegates at the Qatar Infrastructure Conference in London that the air-cooling would maintain a comfortable temperature of around 24 degrees Celsius in the stadiums.
"There is a moderate risk of heat injury to the players between 24C-29C but if you go above that you have high and extreme risk of injury.
"The one thing FIFA do say, although it is for guidance, is if it's 32C they will stop a match and play three 30-minute thirds rather than two 45-minute halves.
"The reason would be to re-hydrate the players before they could carry on playing. That of course would play havoc with TV schedules and those kind of things.
"The commitment from Qatar was to provide conditions in the moderate band, so that matches would go ahead and be played as normal. Matches have to be played at an acceptable temperature and in safety so that FIFA do not intervene."
A FIFA spokesman told Reuters: "This possibility has not been discussed. In any case, this would require a change in the Laws of the Game, and therefore would have to be analysed and approved by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in the first place."
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Soccer Break Friday – Time to say goodbye
Blackburn Rovers. Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wigan Athletic. Blackpool. Birmingham City. Five teams, two must go. Who will it be?
Nervy times ahead then for these five Premier League strugglers. Sunday will be traumatic and full of twists.
Blackpool striker DJ Campbell has been relegated before, and is apparently scaring the living daylights out of his teammates with his tales of the dreaded drop.
More Blackpool now, and manager Ian Holloway's take on things. They are a colourful bunch the Tangerines, and they've given all the top teams a run for their money this season. Do you want to see them relegated?
Over to the FIFA scandal latest, and do you agree with this blog? Are you in favour of the FA's abstaining from the voting on the FIFA presidency?
Sensationally, read on for news that Qatar could be stripped of the right to host the 2022 World Cup. Now that would shake the game up.
Finally, remember Paolo Di Canio, he of the ultimate bit of sportsmanship but who also pushed a referee? Well, he could be back in the English game.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Soccer Break Tuesday
Football's governing bodies are dominating the news on Tuesday as the FIFA presidency candidates hit the campaign trail and the UEFA presidency will be retained by an unopposed Michel Platini.
The sport is more global than ever, highlighted in December when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup ahead of the United States, Japan, Australia and South Korea despite the fact a Middle Eastern country has never before hosted a major global sporting event.
For Qatar's Mohamed Bin Hammam is challenging Swiss Sepp Blatter as the head of football's world governing body later this year. Who would you like in charge? Reports of a divide, or potential one, have been ruled out by the Qatari.
Michel Platini has more football in him having been the architect of France's 1984 European championships win, but is his re-election as UEFA president necessarily the best thing? Would you prefer someone who hasn't played the game to come in with an outside view?
Sticking with the global theme, we've already been discussing the new season of the American league MLS. Do you agree with this blog that the MLS is a little misunderstood? Or do you believe it truly is a 'major league'?
Another league which provokes debate is the Scottish Premier League, dominated by Celtic and Rangers. Is this a good or a bad thing? Scotland's captain thinks the league is a bore.
One of the world's best leagues in La Liga often ends up in a two horse race, Barcelona and Real Madrid battling for the title. Do you prefer more open leagues such as Ligue 1?
from Financial Regulatory Forum:
COLUMN-Qatar bank ban bad for Islamic finance
By Keith Mullin, Editor at Large, International Financing Review; the views expressed are his own.
LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Qatar's decision to ban conventional banks from offering Islamic banking services with immediate effect and to wind down their Islamic windows by the end of the year is an absurd development.
It is disgracefully anti-competitive, counter-productive and there is every likelihood that the government will come to regret it.
The central bank's reasons for imposing the ban were put down to a host of supervisory and monetary policy issues that were poorly explained and ultimately made little sense. It said the Qatari financial system has "well established Islamic banks... that fulfil local demand on Islamic products". This is laughable since the country's top three Islamic lenders - Qatar National Bank, Commercial Bank of Qatar and Doha Bank - are all conventional banks.
The authorities suggested banks were finding it difficult to manage co-mingled Islamic and non-Islamic risk from the standpoint of capital adequacy, reporting and financial stability. That was presumably more a comment about the central bank's own abilities. In short, the QCB circular was nonsense. The ban was a thinly veiled attempt to give the country's Islamic banks a free ride for no other reason than they can't compete in an open market.
The fact that QCB governor Abdullah Saud Al-Thani personally opened HSBC's Islamic banking branch in Doha just last July will do nothing to enhance his reputation or credibility.
Absurd or not, the ban sent a frisson through international banking circles, as there is some support for its extension to other countries in the region.
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton jokes about Yemen stumble
Call it the Trip.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a high-stakes trip to Yemen to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation on Wednesday, stumbled briefly upon re-entering her airplane. Clinton was unhurt and newswise it was a non-event -- except that it was captured by television cameras.
Clinton's video misstep ended up going out on YouTube and became a minor Internet sensation, prompting snarky headlines from some of the world's headline writers ("Unexpected trip on Clinton plane!" joked one).
It's the kind of pointless fingerpointing that public figures (and sometimes journalists) loathe because it distracts from real news, in this case Clinton's effort to broaden the U.S. relationship with Yemen, which is gaining notoreity as one of the world's main incubators of al Qaeda.
But Clinton obviously decided to take control of the meme, because she mentioned it herself on Thursday during a meeting at her next stop in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Qatar's ruler, welcoming Clinton to his palace, spoke about how he had fallen in his home and Clinton responded with her own story. "It happened to me just yesterday actually. I was going up the stairs to the airplane and I was looking over my back and waving and then I turned and there was a bump in the, in the entry into the plane. You know, those things happen," she added.
They do indeed. But when they happen to Hillary Clinton, they usually end up being news.
Was Bill again upto his old tricks? This came to her mind involuntarily and then O’ops, the lady diplomat forgot the bump?
Rex Minor
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Winter World Cup looks more and more a reality
What Sepp Blatter wants he usually gets. So when the FIFA president said that the Qatari World Cup finals will “probably” be in the winter because of the summer heat you can safely begin preparations now for your trip to the Middle East in January 2022.
The decision to move the date of the first World Cup in the Middle East, which first needs to be ratified by FIFA’s executive committee, is going to have huge ramifications on club and international soccer up to five years before the 2022 tournament as well as on other sports.
The highly complex and crowded sporting calendar is designed to involve as little overlap between the major sports so that each receive the maximum exposure, and thus sponsorship, from audiences around the globe.
We wait to hear what the International Olympic Committee (IOC) make of the prospect of the World Cup being switched to the same time as their 2022 Winter Olympics.
Blatter’s strongest hint that the tournament would be moved was coupled with a dig at the IOC when he said that they ran their finances like a housewife and claimed they had no transparency.
So far the criticism towards FIFA for deciding to take the World Cup to the tiny gas-rich Gulf country has been almost as fierce as the heat experienced here in the summer months of June and July.
Blatter, though, continues to ride out the storm and he saw his chances of a fourth term as FIFA boss boosted at the AFC Congress last week when his ally Prince Ali of Jordan was voted on to the FIFA ExCo at the expense of his long term critic Chung Mong-joon, which damaged both the South Korean’s and AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam’s chances of a potential bid against Blatter later this year.
how about group stage in winter and knockout stages in summer??? only kidding but you might be able to squeeze group stage in during a shorter break for the national leages
from FaithWorld:
Russian firm plans halal reindeer meat exports to Qatar
When rival energy producers Russia and Qatar talk business, it's no longer only about natural gas -- they're talking reindeer meat, which Russia has promised to export and butcher according to Muslim dietary law. The prospect of Russia exporting halal reindeer meat products to the desert kingdom first came up last month when the governor of Russia's Arctic Yamal Nenets region, where most of Russia's gas is produced, was in Qatar for investment talks.
"We told the Qatari leadership that we don't only have oil and gas. We also have reindeer. And then a Sheikh asked, 'Is reindeer halal? Can Muslims eat it?' It turns out they can," Yamal's governor Dmitry Kobylkin told Reuters in an interview. "They were so surprised to learn there exists another kind of meat that they haven't tried and that it can be halal. Gold mining is interesting for them, gas, infrastructure, and now investment in halal reindeer meat processing," Kobylkin said.
After consulting with the imam of the Salekhard Mosque in Yamal's capital, the state-owned Yamal Reindeer Cmpany that will produce the meat decided it should also market halal canned reindeer within Russia.
"There is a huge demand among Russia's Muslim community for halal products. Until two-three years ago, you didn't see any halal stores. Now they're opening everywhere," said Imam Abdullah Hazrat of the Salekhard Mosque.
from Tales from the Trail:
United States 0-2 in world sports arena
The United States has now lost out on two huge world sporting events in the past two years. And in each instance to first-time winners.
It may be an unintended consequence of the fight against terrorism. The very security policies aimed at protecting the United States from attack, might be working to bench it in contests to host world sporting events due to some concerns that foreign fans, players, even officials may have trouble entering the United States for the games.
FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the smallest country ever to host the soccer finals, over competitors Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
President Barack Obama was clearly not pleased, telling reporters: "I think it was the wrong decision."
He had sent the top U.S. law enforcement official, Attorney General Eric Holder, to Zurich on Tuesday to help make a last-minute pitch in the bid to secure the soccer games for the United States and presumably to soothe any concerns over security.
At that time, a Justice Department spokesman said it was Holder's goal "to make clear that the United States has the capacity to host a World Cup that is both secure and welcoming to the people of the world."
It was the second smackdown in as many years for the United States in the sports sphere, and came after former President Bill Clinton and actor Morgan Freeman also helped try to make the case.
