David Edwards

For those that have not heard, the bank is sponsoring the Dubai Marathon for the first time on January 7, and staff at all levels are taking part.

The fittest, like Economist Daniel Hanna and Iraq CEO Stuart Horsewood are running the full marathon, while UAE Chief Executive Officer Ray Ferguson and David Edwards, Regional General Manager are entering the 10km event.

'That is why you will see me in the gym on Fridays,' says Mr. Edwards. 'I have not run in a competition for a few years. But I have been amazed by the amount of interest in this event, and it is wonderful how many people have already entered.'

This sort of dynamism also reflects the heightened state of activity in the Dubai regional headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank. Mr. Edwards explains what is happening in terms of geographical expansion and new product launches.

'Earlier this year we opened our branch in Afghanistan, and it was profitable from July. We also installed the first-ever ATM in the country, and have already had to install a second one because it has proved so popular.

'Stuart Horsewood, who is presently training for the Dubai Marathon by running around the front-room of his house, is heading the Afghanistan office. He is looking also looking after Iraq but we pulled everyone out due to the security situation between April and May this year.

'We are still monitoring Iraq and have extended the license to allow us to open in March next year. In the meantime, the Iraqi Central Bank is helping us to recruit Iraqis to train within the Standard Chartered network, so that we are ready to go back into Iraq and move quickly.

'We do still work through our involvement with the Trade Bank of Iraq , and we still believe that Iraq will prove a very important market - much bigger than Afghanistan, for example - but it is just difficult to do business there with the security situation, and I am not going to put staff at risk.

'The other major new market for us is Iran where we now have a license to open our first branch in the Kish Island Free Zone, and will do so within weeks. We support what the Iranian Government is doing in Kish Island and hope that this will be a bridge to opening a full onshore branch.'

Meanwhile in the United Arab Emitrates, Standard Chartered has opened a new branch in the Chinamex, part of the Dragon Mart complex outside Dubai, and is about to open in the Dubai Internet City. There is also a new branch in Qatar and nine new branches in Pakistan which fall under the Dubai regional headquarters.

From the product perspective, Mr. Edwards points to developments in project finance and Islamic banking.

'We have just acquired the London based project finance arm of ANZ which has a large part of its $1.5 billion book in the Middle East and 50-60 staff,' he says. 'This is a big boost to us on the project finance side which we only got into two-and-a-half years ago.

'This is a good add on for us, and from the Grindlays' acquisition in 2000 from ANZ we know that such takeovers work well for us as the cultural fit is right. And in terms of new project finance opportunities we can see a huge volume of new work in Qatar in oil, petrochemicals and gas, and with the new acquisition, also in power and mining.

'We were probably a bit late getting into Islamic finance, but I do see this now becoming very significant for us. And we will be developing from our existing capability in the UAE, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and will be looking to roll out Islamic banking in Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, and Iran where we have to do so to meet Central Bank requirements.'

There is no doubt that Standard Chartered Bank is under starters' orders for 2005, and ready to race ahead. Indeed, so much is happening that it is impossible to fit it into a short article, but the Dubai International Financial Centre is another area to watch for developments.