Middle East

Standard Chartered has successfully completed the first end-to-end electronic transaction in the Middle East automotive sector for Al-Sayer

Agreement designed to foster strategic focus on MENA region

Event to advise SME credit decision-makers across the lending spectrum to take place in Amman, Jordan in August

American International Group (AIG) is expanding its credit insurance coverage in the Middle East, as it seeks to tap a US$60 million (Dh220.3m) market for insuring trade receivables. The insurer is expanding again five years after it experienced the financial equivalent of a nearly fatal heart attack, when the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered billions of dollars of credit default swaps it could not afford to pay, precipitating a $182 billion bailout by the US government.

MidCap FinCo Limited (together with its subsidiaries MidCap Financial), in partnership with other Apollo managed funds and affiliates, has announced that it has signed an agreement with Mubadala GE Capital (MGEC) to acquire substantially all of MGEC's loan portfolio of primarily corporate and real estate loans in the US and Europe with total assets of USD3.6 bn

HSBC has announced an appointment of Tim Evans as its trade and supply chain business for the bank s Middle East and North Africa (Mena) division

WestconME Group has launched Credit as a Service (CaaS) to facilitate channel financing across the MENA region.

Peter Ball, Regional Manager Factoring for HSBC in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), talks to Factorscan about the potential of the Gulf region beyond Dubai, the major obstacles and incentives for development in the region and why increased competition in the region would be a good thing for the offering.

Levels of confidence among Gulf business people declined slightly in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the latest statistics from HSBC s Gulf Business Confidence Index.