Bahrain Has Potential to Become GCC’s Financial Hub: London Mayor

Bahrain is the Gulf Cooperation Council’s most established financial hub and is well-positioned to leverage its strong track, says Nicholas Lyons, the Lord Mayor of London. He believes Bahrain can attract the world’s best professions if an ecosystem is developed for businesses to consider the kingdom for expanding their businesses.

Lyons said it’s really important to have all the professional services that can support the industry, such as actuaries, risk managers, accountants, and compliance officers, lawyers, as well as technologists. For this, there should be an accommodative ecosystem, and a good legal system.

Bahrain Boasts Significant Investment

The London Mayor says Bahrain is a much smaller market than some of its GCC counterparts, but is recording significant investment. “We’re seeing very significant investment and very significant strategic importance to expanding financial services. As hydrocarbon economies think about their futures, they’re looking to deploy significant wealth they have created primarily into two areas, that is renewable technology and financial services.

Lyons said Bahrain shouldn’t feel there is a zero-sum game. “If others get big, they will suffer. We see the GCC as a very exciting economic area and it is in a very important trading bloc.”He believes Bahrain has real advantages, a track record in financial services ready for building professional services capabilities, a legal system, and a regulator.

Bahrain Should Position Itself

Bahrain touts the kingdom is strategically and squarely placed at the center of the Islamic financial services industry globally. It leads the GCC in nurturing and encouraging the growth of digital financial services.

Lyons believes Bahrain should position itself as the hub for the GCC. “They will say, look to build your main GCC subsidiary here and have branches in other GCC countries. So I think that’s a good model and I think Bahrain could really benefit.”

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Alastair Long, the Ambassador of the UK to Bahrain, agreed that the Kingdom of Bahrain has the type of talent and provides an ability to just create fast, and be agile. “For me, it’s really exciting to think about what we could do together. It is the constant innovation that keeps London as a top financial hub.”