PwC ‘voice of the customer’ on growth strategies for Islamic Banks
October 29th, 2014
Islamic banks may be missing a huge opportunity within the Muslim population due to a perception gap, according to a PwC report What customers want, a voice of the customer survey of GCC banking customers. A perception seems to ...
National Bank of Oman highlights distinctions between conventional and Islamic finance
October 22nd, 2014
“The GCC countries have committed to actively strengthening their positions in the Islamic finance market, with Saudi Arabia currently in the lead. We, at the National Bank of Oman, have been doing significant work in the Islamic finance domain ...
Fall in Oil Prices Poses a Problem for Russia, Iraq and Others
October 16th, 2014
From Moscow to Caracas, Riyadh to Baghdad, in Tehran, Algiers, Kuwait City and Lagos, officials are confronting the plunge in prices — roughly 25 percent since a peak in June. A steep decline in oil prices is straining the ...
Five reasons oil prices are dropping
October 14th, 2014
As oil prices continue to fall, analysts and producers are trying to wrap their heads around the reasons and identify a floor price. Even though crude benchmarks like Brent and WTI keep dropping, the cost of finding oil continues ...
Brent Oil Below $100 as Ample Supplies Weigh
September 10th, 2014
Brent crude oil prices fell below $100 per barrel in volatile trade on Tuesday, a fourth straight daily decline as ample supplies weighed, while U.S. crude rose on the expectation of dwindling fuel stockpiles. Prices were not far above ...
A New American Oil Bonanza
August 29th, 2014
The United States now accounts for 10% of the world’s oil production. As it sharply curtails imports from countries like Angola and Nigeria, those producers are then compelled to sell their oil to China and other Asian markets at ...
HSBC reports pretax profit of $1 billion on MENA operations
August 5th, 2014
HSBC has reported that its profit before tax for H1 2014 in the Middle East and North Africa is up nine per cent on both reported and constant currency bases. On an underlying basis, profit before tax increased by ...
Record award for former Yukos investors after tribunal finds “political motivation” for Russia’s actions
July 31st, 2014
An arbitral tribunal sitting in The Hague has unanimously held that the Russian Federation breached its international obligations under the Energy Charter Treaty when it liquidated and part-nationalised the former Yukos Oil Company in 2007. The Permanent Court of ...
Corporate tax rates table
May 16th, 2014
The following table indicates all corporate tax rates in percentage for a number of countries worldwide. Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Country % % % % % % % % % % Afghanistan ...
Iran and Iraq drive 15% global rise in executions
March 27th, 2014
The number of known executions around the world rose almost 15 percent in 2013, with the spike due in part to more executions in Iran and Iraq, a new Amnesty International report says. The report released by the London-based ...
