Euromoney Conference speakers announced

Manama, Feb. 9 (BNA): Euromoney Conferences, the world’s leading organiser of conferences for cross-border investment and capital markets, announced today that a stellar line-up of leading financial experts will be speaking at the fifth Euromoney GCC Financial Forum on 23rd and 24th February 2016 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manama. More than 500 financial experts, economists, investors, bankers and policy makers are expected to attend the event and discuss the impact of sustained fall in oil prices on businesses in the region and beyond. A major highlight of this year’s forum will be an interactive open town-hall style session with His Excellency Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), where the audience will have the unique opportunity to ask questions directly to H.E. the Governor. In addition, the forum will feature a keynote interview with Mr. Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the Economic Development Board (EDB), who will discuss a number of topics related to economic growth and the Financial Services sector. The EDB supports events such as Euromoney, which offer platforms from which discussion around key issues related to the economy can be held, particularly related to economic diversification and the creation of jobs. This year the forum will include a keynote address by Mr. Gazi Ercel, former Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey (1996-2001) and Chief Executive of Ercel Global. He will showcase the fundamental changes which have occurred in the banking sector, his predictions on trends in the financial services industry in the next 10 years and the global outlook for developed and emerging market economies. The two-day forum will also feature high-profile panel discussions examining the global and regional macro outlook, implications of lower oil price for financial services industry in GCC, sovereign deficits, challenges, opportunities, strategic choices, market segmentation, regulation and more. The panellists include financial experts such as Jahangir Aka, from Neuberger Berman, Wael Ziada, from EFG Hermes, Mohammed AlShammasi, Derayah Financial, Alissa Amico, Economic and Corporate Governance Centre, Osama Al Khajah, Ebtikar Association, Areije Al-Shaker, BDB, Tuba Terekli, Qotuf, Luay Ahmadi, Emirates NBD Private Banking, Alex Hayward, Vestra Wealth, Michael Mansour, Microsoft Gulf, Andrew Sims, NEC Payments and Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, International Islamic Financial Market. The sessions will be moderated by EDB’s Chief Economist Jarmo Kotilaine, Richard Banks, Victoria Behn and Giada Vercelli from Euromoney Conferences. On the second day, the keynote address will be presented by Mahmood Al Kooheji, CEO of Mumtalakat, which will be followed by three panel sessions. Discussions will focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in digital world, strategic opportunities in financial services, with regards to wealth management, platforms for competitiveness and on Bahrain Energy Industry Strategy. Commenting on the announcement, Richard Banks, consultant editor at Euromoney Conferences said: "This year’s GCC Financial Forum comes at a crucial time as the world adopts a new development agenda with uncertainty in the global economy due to the sustained fall in oil prices. At such a time, we at Euromoney are pleased to provide a platform for our participants where financial experts, analysts, regulators can all under one roof discuss, debate and find short term and long term strategies to cope with the current market. We are confident that the town hall session, in particular and the different panel discussions in general will be interesting, providing positive insights so that organisations can re-appraise their business strategies." Sponsors for this year’s event include: Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) and National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) as lead sponsors, Bahrain Development Bank Group and Mumtalakat as co-sponsors, Baker & McKenzie as exhibitor and Bahrain Islamic Bank (BiSB), BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered and Tamkeen as supporting organisations. For further information and to view the 2016 agenda, please visit the Euromoney Conferences website: www.euromoneyconferences.com/gcc . Euromoney Conferences invites interested participants to join the debate and to voice their opinions on the conference themes on Twitter, using the hashtag #emGCC