Jordan has endured a demanding few years in light of the challenging political and security environment in the Middle East. However, a series of policies introduced by the Central Bank of Jordan and the country's government are already making headway in tackling these challenges.
From financially motivated cyber crime to politically influenced cyber warfare, the virtual threats to financial institutions are multiplying. Companies must respond by arming themselves against such attacks or else they risk losing their footing on the new digital battleground.
Having been upgraded from frontier to emerging market status by Morgan Stanley Capital International, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are certain to see increasing levels of investor interest, but they are also likely to be confronted with some new challenges.
Observers are already predicting that 2014 will be a record-breaking year for sukuk issuance. While the majority of deals are currently coming out of Malaysia, CIMB Islamic's CEO believes that developments in the pipeline will see the asset class grow its international presence.
Qatar's gross domestic product growth may be envied by much of the rest of the world, but the country's finance minister is not blinkered by the country's current economic success. As he explains to The Banker, the need to diversify the hydrocarbon-reliant economy is great, which is why he has just announced a record-breaking budget to this end.