International and regional banking experts to probe key industry issues at MEFTEC 2006

The second edition of the Middle East's largest financial services event, being held under the patronage of H.E. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor, Bahrain Monetary Agency, from 13-15 February 2006 in Bahrain.

Held under the theme "Moving from Technological Possibilities to Top-line Growth," this year's conference aims to show how banks can discover new sources of revenue by harvesting the inherent potential of technology.

"Financial institutions in the Middle East face a unique set of challenges as they become engaged in global competition and struggle to maintain local customers," says Joseph DiVanna, MEFTEC conference chairman. "With the financial resources to start a new wave of financial services and without the old fashioned and inefficient business processes of their western counterparts, Middle Eastern financial services organisations are well placed to leapfrog the West and become leaders in the twenty-first century."

"The conference will inform financial services executives on how to align their IT resources proactively with partners to leverage the power of technology in new ways."

Featured speakers for this year's conference include Michael Hanlon, CEO, Islamic Bank of Britain; Zareen Aziz, CEO, First Women Bank Ltd; R Seetharaman, General Manager, Doha Bank Ltd; Rashid Daoudi, Acting General Manager, Jordan National Bank and Abdul Razzak Al Qasim, General Manager, National Bank of Bahrain. In addition, outstanding contributions are also drawn from Banque Saudi Al Fransi, Banque Misr, Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, Gulf Bank, Union National Bank, Commercial Bank of Qatar, Dubai Islamic Bank, National Bank of Kuwait, Bank of Alexandria, Citigroup and American Express.

"In order to meet the needs of senior executives from both the business and technology domains, the 2006 MEFTEC conference is built around two streams of knowledge: strategy and technology,"

according to Paul Stott, Managing Director of Media Generation Group plc, the event organisers.

"With six dynamic conference sessions spread out over three days and constituting 32 hours of content, the conference offers a comprehensive coverage of the industry's hottest issues, such as engaging the business with technology solutions; designing and delivering new products; developing a customer centric bank; streamlining operations while building capabilities; developing strategies for compliance and business continuity; and providing Islamic Banking services to non-Muslims - and much more besides!"

The prestigious conference, produced by Media Generation in strategic partnership with the Bahrain Monetary Agency and the Bahrain Convention & Exhibition Bureau, runs alongside the region's largest financial technology exhibition featuring over 100 technology vendors from 23 countries and showcasing a broad spectrum of solutions for back-office operations, front-office processes, enterprise application integration, customer management, business intelligence, communications, risk management, security, payment systems and outsourcing.

The impressive roster of MEFTEC 2006 sponsors includes Microsoft Corporation, ProgressSoft, HP, Batelco, Bahrain Economic Development Board, Misys, Tata Consultancy Services, LogicaCMG, Lightspeed Communications, 2Connect, Temenos, i-flex Solutions Ltd, ITS, VeriSign, Thales e-Security, Sybase, Polaris, Nucleus Software and Naizak. Key media supporting the event are The Banker, IBS, FX&MM and Bobsguide.