DOHA: Among the other financial centres in the Middle East, Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFC Authority) will increasingly be seen as an attractive jurisdiction for family offices; family owned businesses control 75 percent of private sector economic activities in the GCC, according to the findings of a latest study titled ‘Beyond Convention’.
QFC Authority and Campden Wealth, the London-based supplier of market insight, yesterday published “Beyond Convention”, their inaugural Middle East Wealth Report into Middle East wealth holders and how they interact with providers of financial services designed to meet their needs.
About 80 percent of respondents of the survey felt that bankers did not take responsibility for the consequences of their advice and they also wanted more transparency about bankers’ fees.
In addition, 60 percent of the respondents said that they now scrutinised their relationship with their private banks and wealth managers much more closely than they had done a year before.
And over 60 percent of respondents said they pursued wealth creation rather than wealth preservation as an investment goal (typically this would mean that few would be content with less than eight percent growth on their investments).
The report found that wealthy families in the Middle East have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, want to play an active role in managing their money, scrutinise their wealth manager relationships more closely than a year ago, and have great confidence in the future of the region.
Chief Strategic Development Officer at QFC Authority, Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida, said: “The Beyond Convention study is an important piece of research which shows the QFC Authority’s continuous commitment to thought leadership, benefiting the financial services industry in the Middle East as well as in Qatar. Moreover, the findings show that financial centres such as Qatar will increasingly be seen as attractive jurisdictions for family offices. The QFC is focused on offering a highly conducive environment for the development and growth of family offices, whether their ambitions are local, regional or global.”
Group Chief Legal Officer and Board Secretary of the QFC Authority, David Dhanoo, added: “This research makes compelling reading for all those interested in helping to develop a vibrant location for single family offices. It demonstrates the importance of the new regulations governing single family offices which the QFC Authority issued last year. These regulations offer new opportunities for family offices to establish and manage their affairs more professionally and subject to better governance in the QFC’s attractive world class legal, tax and regulatory environment.”
The Peninsula
