The bank branch of the future? Fierce Finance IT Not too long ago, as online banking was just getting underway, people speculated the old bricks-and-mortar bank branch was doomed. After all, why would people travel to a physical location when they could do everything online from their home or office? That concept was debunked fairly [...]

Report: 1 in 5 banks urgently need core IT upgrades Fierce Finance IT The financial crisis ended up putting some massive IT project on hold. Chances are your plans for a core upgrade were affected. But now that the crisis has waned and the recession has ended–we can only pray that we do not double [...]

By Nicolas Parasie DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai’s Mashreq, the bank owned by the billionaire Al Ghurair family, is pursuing growth in North Africa hoping to tap the business flow between that region and the United Arab Emirates, an executive said. The lender is betting on Egypt and Libya, where it is still in the race [...]

Elena Moya guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 August 2009 21.31 BST Libya is preparing to pour millions of pounds into the London property market in the latest sign of burgeoning business links between the two countries. The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), which manages the country’s $65bn (£40bn) oil wealth, has bought two buildings in recent months worth [...]

HSBC appoints new global banking head for Mideast Middle East: Thursday, June 03 – 2010 at 08:38 HSBC has appointed Mohammad Al Tuwaijri as the new head of its global banking and markets division for the Middle East and North Africa. Al Tuwaijri, a Saudi national, will focus on key markets in Saudi Arabia, Egypt [...]

Forum for expats working in Libya. Mostly full of spam, but a few useful posts.http://www.alloexpat.com/libyaexpatforum/

(Source: Middle East Company News)Small and medium enterprises in the Middle East continue to top the HSBC’s Small Business Confidence Monitor, with 49% reporting a positive economic outlook in the next six months and 50% looking to increase capital expenditure (capex) by the end of 2010. This is the sixth wave of the HSBC Small [...]

The UK Department of Trade and Industry have published a very useful guide for UK companies looking to do business in Libya (download here). There’s also a wealth of related information on the UKTI website.

The banking sector is made up of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), five state-owned commercial banks, one private commercial bank (Bank of Commerce and Development), and 48 national banks. The largest of the state-owned commercial banks, the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank (LAFB), has subsidiaries and affiliates in more than 30 countries.

Edward Hadas /  July 20, 2010, 0:08 IST Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/brv_storypage.php?autono=401881 BP/Libya: Corporate executives often struggle to keep their moral compass when dealing with wicked governments. The lure of profits can make them lose their bearings. But politicians who criticise corporate collusion with oppression are often guilty of rank hypocrisy. The latest American flap over BP [...]