Sign up to receive our latest insights from the Middle East bank leaders have focused their attention almost exclusively on the COVID-19 pandemic but with everyone focused on the short term there has been little discussion about what will happen in 2021 or beyond leaders must not lose sight of what they want to achieve long term it is important to consider what banking will look like in 2030 it is helpful first to look back and see if what we have learned over the past 10 years could help us predict the next 10 years Most “disruptive” business models do not deliver Despite the perpetual search for new business models the demise of the traditional banking model is not imminent These new models often do not deliver on their promise a decade ago bank/retail partnerships were all the rage They seemed like the way banks could expand their reach into the daily shopping habits of consumers these partnerships mostly failed because banking is highly regulated and difficult to operate alongside a retail business A few of the recent bank/telecom and bank/FinTech partnerships may succeed many telecom operators and technology companies will struggle in banking over the next decade for the same reasons that retailers did over the past 10 years we believe that most banking activities will remain in the hands of banks many banks were focused on exploiting their large store of customer data to improve customer relationships and obtain a greater “share of wallet.” After 10 years banks are still struggling to access their data and render it actionable there has been much talk about artificial intelligence (AI) as the key to unlocking more value from customer data banks already use simple AI applications such as fraud detection The problem is that the emotional component of money which means a wide range of outcomes when making decisions makes the use of predictive analytics very difficult for banks it is completely different to how such companies as Amazon or Google deploy predictive analytics Some banks will improve how they use customer data but by 2030 banks will both use AI more and be more realistic about what AI can achieve for them The surge in online shopping has simply set the seal on this change It is millennial consumers who drove digital adoption By 2030 the majority of customers will engage with banks in a very different way—and those banks that struggle to adapt will face the same bleak future as many of today’s retailers banks should consider their long history and have a clear strategy on how to develop necessary innovation capabilities Most large banks today are the product of a long line of M&A—and M&A will continue to be a preferred route for banks to address the strategic challenges ahead banks with strong innovation capabilities will have opportunities to purchase banks which cannot innovate but which still possess value Banks without innovation capabilities can avoid becoming acquisition targets by purchasing these capabilities from FinTechs excelling at those activities which are core to banking banks can again prove the prophets of doom wrong This article originally appeared in Gulf News Learn more about financial services at Strategy& Middle East Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country Digital access for organisations. Includes exclusive features and content. See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times. The contest was unlike any government program that had been rolled out before But it was incredibly successful—so successful and helping to change the way that economists think about alleviating poverty While giving people cash isn’t a panacea to all the world’s problems it is clearly effective at giving people a boost But for all the good giving people money has done there is research that suggests there might be an even better way to give that cash away Instead of giving money to just any anybody governments and philanthropists can give it to entrepreneurs who have ideas for creating or expanding a business they create jobs that allow people to provide for themselves and governments to spend less on direct welfare 15% were agricultural and another 15% were in information technology A number of education startups also won grants as well as a company that made educational comic books The World Bank conducted an impact analysis on the first phase of the program, in which 1,2000 entrepreneurs out of 24,000 applicants were awarded $50,000 the 480 best business plans were selected based on the assessments  of independent judges from the audit and consulting company PricewaterHouseCoopers and Nigeria’s Enterprise Development Center To see whether the grant made any difference the World Bank would compared those 720 randomly-selected winners to the 1,200 finalists that received nothing found that grant winners were far more likely to have businesses with over 10 employees and that their businesses were both more innovative and profitable than businesses created by those who weren’t selected that $50,000 grant made a huge difference—not just to the entrepreneurs There is little evidence that such capacity building programs work Over $20 million will be disbursed to Kenyan entrepreneurs The program will be primarily funded by the World Bank Kenya’s competition shares many similarities with YouWin an entrepreneurship specialist in Kenya’s department of trade who helped get the program off the ground He said the evidence of YouWin’s success was an essential factor in gaining support from the World Bank and Kenya’s government to implement the program researchers hope to learn even more about what makes these programs effective 250 applicants will have their business plan randomly selected with only the most minimal screening and no additional support once applicants passed the first threshold they  got help developing their business plans.) If these unscreened Kenya applicants are successful it would demonstrate that business-plan competitions might work with little administrative cost The Kenyan competition will also be testing the impact of grants of $9,000 and $36,000 If smaller grants work nearly as well as big ones that could also make the program less costly All of these tests are being done with the intention of making future business competitions The most interesting aspect of these programs is that they suggest that there are a lot of good ideas out there that are not getting financed Economic theory holds that people with good ideas should be able to get the money to make it happen Banks and investors exist to make loans and get equity to promising businesses the financial system generally works well at funneling financing to people with sound business plans World Bank economist Francisco Camarate de Campos notes that African entrepreneurs often face serious capital constraints because the financial sector isn’t large and sophisticated enough to identify the best loan candidates The business-plan competition solves this problem by surfacing thousands of business ideas that can be judged by experts it might not tempt as many entrepreneurs to apply Some policymakers have worried that handing out grants might induce winners to embezzle funds or throw the money away people—including poor people—just don’t waste money whether it be starting a business or helping their kid get a good education they will put most of it toward their goal Just think about what you would do if someone gave you $50,000 Sign up to the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief here for news and analysis on African business Jorge Camarate (top left) and Aurelien Vincent (top right) senior manager and Misa Lazovic (bottom right) Arabian Business: Latest News on the Middle East, Real Estate, Finance, and More Comment > The $100 billion prize: Development finance can boost economic diversity in the GCC which according to the World Bank has declined by about 40 percent as a percentage of GDP over the past decade The GCC governments have been trying to diversify their economies away from hydrocarbons for years with mixed success To accelerate the development of the non-oil economy GCC governments must attract more private sector investments and looking to attract foreign direct investment is a solid start The dual shock of lower oil prices and the Covid-19 pandemic – which devastated the construction retail and real estate sectors in particular – has underscored how dependent GCC economies remain on government largess which derives mostly from the energy sector Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) are ideal catalysts for private sector investments DFIs are specialised organisations usually funded by national or regional governments to finance projects with a significant developmental impact but typically they pursue socio-economic impact – in areas as diverse as agriculture mortgages – while ensuring self-sustainability A DFI’s involvement in a particular company or sector can provide a strong signal of confidence to the private sector and can create a significant multiplier effect for investment we estimate based on our research that it can attract $10 of private capital Given that the top five GCC DFIs (excluding sovereign wealth funds) have invested $10 billion the DFIs could help unlock upward of $100 billion DFIs must walk a fine line as they pursue economic diversification in the GCC: trying to maximise socio-economic impact while delivering superior financial returns A common issue that restrains DFIs’ organisational agility and investment effectiveness is rigid pipeline management and reporting processes some GCC DFIs have only 60 percent of their assets invested while global best-in-class DFIs invest around 95 percent based on GCC and global DFIs’ annual reports We believe DFIs should take three actions to spur economic diversification in a post-pandemic world: Rethink internal processes DFIs should clarify their mandate and institute flexible and pragmatic day-to-day decision making To invest more quickly on more promising opportunities streamline their governance wherever possible and exploit data and automation to improve risk management and reporting practices DFIs should improve existing products and offer innovative approaches to expand the breadth of offerings and the scope of opportunities They should improve the versatility of existing products They also can introduce loans and credit lines of various sizes and tenures with flexible features such as easy prepayment options or grace periods and take into account new sources of collateral such as government guarantees such as lines of credit to help small businesses develop e-commerce channels DFIs should rethink their distribution strategy fragmented sectors where they want to reach small players that can create growth and innovation If they lack certain sector-specific expertise they should build or acquire it swiftly to properly assess and originate deals and then invite private capital to co-invest with them such as express approval to accelerate co-financing with qualified private lenders It also means exploring partnerships with new types of organisations such as financial technology start-ups focused on micro- and small-businesses lending With government support from the pandemic gradually coming to an end DFIs in the GCC will have ample opportunities to put more money to work and enhance their socio-economic impact and accelerating private sector investments at large scale will require more agile investment processes and more creative digital-powered organisations that can take advantage of a wider set of partnerships and products Read today's Portuguese stories delivered to your email The 88 defendants in the Hells Angels process are now being tried in Camarate (Loures) According to one of the lawyers linked to the case from the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC) decided to pronounce all the defendants "in the exact terms of the indictment" and placed more than 50 under house arrest Carlos Alexandre's pronouncement order has more than a thousand pages and in one of the passages of the order "this set of elements thus grouped is not a simple recreational motorbike club but a group of people who organize themselves (...) in paramilitary ways or similar to the mode of action of a militia" The judge also considers that all elements that make up the 'biker' group are "in absolute consonance hierarchical and imbued with obedience to the statutes (of the biker club) and the obligations arising from it" regardless of "any side where they are located " This last consideration by the judge is related to the fact that one of the defendants alleges that he was in Luxembourg at the time of the criminal acts (aggression) that occurred in the Prior Velho area In the allegations of the preliminary debate the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) asked for the trial of all the defendants arguing that they all committed the crimes listed in the indictment documents seized from the group as evidence and the testimony of witnesses and defendants the attack perpetrated by the defendants and members of the Hells Angels group in the restaurant Mesa do Prior as well as the persecution carried out by them against Mário Machado leader of the extreme right wing movement who belonged to a rival 'biker' group The prosecutor then gave as proven the other crimes included in the indictment including extortion and possession of prohibited weapons The prosecution of the MP considered that those members of the 'biker' group Hells Angels devised a plan to annihilate a rival group using physical force and various weapons to cause them serious injuries We appreciate that not everyone can afford to pay for our services but if you are able to we ask you to support The Portugal News by making a contribution – no matter how small You can change how much you give or cancel your contributions at any time In some areas Portugal is really advanced in other basic elements this country is behind many 3rd world countries in this case its well know that bikie groups are criminals its proven by the number of them in jails world wide but in this country see how other countries outlaw these gangs compared to Portugal outlaw motorcycle gangs are considered a national threat and a national policing priority in 17 EU Member States and six Europol partner states And of course they are legal - and problematic - in the US and elsewhere So it's hard to see how Portugal is lagging in this respect Send us your comments or opinion on this article Reaching over 400,000 people a week with news about Portugal Tchitundo-hulo first caught the attention of scientists around half a century ago the geologist Camarate França began work on the site the German ethnologist Herman Baumann catalogued the rock carvings and paintings of Tchitundo-hulo Mulume Baumann went on to discover Tchitundo-hulo Mucai Angolan researchers Carlos Ervedosa and Santos Júnior worked on the site Santos Júnior registered previously unseen rock carvings at Tchitundo-hulo Mulume and he discovered the granite carvings of Pedra da Lagoa and Pedra das Zebras Tchitundo-hulo Mulume boasts around two thousand carvings The complex overlapping of circles and straight lines creates a labyrinth of images that are very hard to interpret According to Ervedosa and Júnior: “the rock carvings (…) seem to have been hammered into the surface of the rock and the grooves have then been rubbed possibly following the markings of existing drawings.” The researchers go on: “It is easy to see that not all the carvings date from the same period From the earliest faint and smooth carvings to the most recent marks (…) we can observe many intermediate stages proving that there has been a long tradition of rock carving at Tchitundo-hulo.” Santos Júnior outlines various reasons for claiming that these are ancient rock carvings one being the sheer quantity of rock carvings at the site The numerous carvings “show that over an extensive period of time this granite mount was used for different ceremonies in which rock carvings on stone ground must have played a central role.” “We can also conclude that only a permanent settlement could have left such an exuberant array of carvings marking their presence on the rockface “The ancient nature of these rock carvings date back to a period when local conditions were less severe than those experienced today where rainfall is infrequent and scarce and there is a great shortage of water The harsh conditions of today mean that Tchitundo-hulo is only visited by the Cuvale nomads who shelter for a short while near the rock as they search for pastures and water for their cattle The inselbergs provide only temporary shelter The wandering communities erect ‘sambos’ (fences of thorn bushes) to herd the cattle overnight The herders make conical-shaped huts covered in cow dung with a small opening at the front sometimes with a short flap serving as a shade José Redinha’s 1975 ethnography map of Angola places Tchitundo-hulo in an area stretching to the foothills of Chela The names Tchitundo-hulo Mulume and Tchitundo-hulo Mucai stand for man and woman The two inselbergs stand about a kilometre apart with an overhang or shelter with drawings on its roof Camarate França noted that these particular inselbergs were named ‘mother and daughter’ by the local population but the memory of why they had been given these names has been lost It is safe to say that the word Tchitundo means hill or mount but the word ‘hulo’ has many possible interpretations Cornelius Prinsloo mentions to Santos Júnior that Tchitundo-hulo could mean ‘Mount Sky’ Júnior interpreted certain groupings of concentric circles ― especially those with rays emanating from them ― as a representation of the stars These motifs are a recurring image in the carvings states that there is evidence of an encampment at the summit of the mount Father Carlos Estermann points out: “As for the word ‘hulo’ let us consider that its precise meaning is not the one attributed to it its translation would need to be Tchitundo-èúlo He adds that: “‘ondjila hulo’ means the final road “Death is the end of the road in a man’s life We could then hypothesise that this particular mount is revered by the local population as a special place where the dead have been honoured where death rites and funeral ceremonies have been performed.” How many rock carvings might we yet discover destroyed with impunity by vandals unaware of their immense importance circles and abstract designs (…),  and a small number of medium to large-sized mammals There is a marked absence of anthropomorphic drawings (…) carving superimposed upon carving from the faintest and most rubbed (these form the greater part of the collection) [lead us to] conclude that there has been rock carving at Tchitundo-hulo Mulume from yesteryear to the not so distant past” “We found only six identifiable drawings of animals There may well be more but they have escaped our notice.” article provided by TAAG - Linhas Aéreas de Angola journalist and professor.He was editor at the Instituto Nacional do Livro e do Disco and at the Ministry of Information. As journalist he was director of Voz do Bié, 1972 the Tveja (Public Television of Angola magazine) the Jornal de Angola and Correio da Semana (which he founded with Manuel Dionisio), 1999 1992. He has published several articles in the press.He published children's literature: Estórias do Leão Velho (1985), Vou Contar (1988), Aqui mas do Outro Lado (2000) e As Sete Vidas de um Gato (2002) - Prize PALOP 98.He also published poetry, Onda Dormida. He is a member of the Union of Angolan Journalists and the Union of Angolan Writers Published under a Creative Commons License The GCC asset management market is projected to grow reaching about $500bn in onshore assets by 2026 according to a report by Strategy& Middle East the GCC asset management industry exhibits robust growth potential favorable oil prices and substantial trade surpluses Wealthy individuals are also attracted to the region with the UAE previously projected to attract the most millionaires worldwide in 2022 an increased appetite for IPOs saw the Middle East raise a record amount in proceeds With open banking going into effect next year in Saudi Arabia incumbent banks may lose their tight control of customer data and their near monopoly over payment services they must rethink their business models to remain relevant and competitive That means finding ways to improve their own offerings and partner with financial technology (FinTech) and third-party institutions to create value for customers What open banking does is mandate banks to expose their systems to third parties with the necessary customer consent This allows those third parties to build products and services for the financial institution’s customers These lower barriers to entry for start-ups result in increased competition and innovation providing non-binding guidance and coordination the number of Saudi FinTech start-ups has gone from 10 to over 60 the central bank released an open banking policy in January 2021 as part of its bid to diversify financial services This is a goal set in the Financial Services Development Program (FSDP) which is part of the national development plan This follows a series of initiatives since 2018 to promote financial sector innovation nationally and regionally payment innovation has accelerated following the adoption of the FSDP Several factors make the Saudi market ripe for disruption by open banking The relatively small number of banks means that adoption and standardization could occur faster than in other markets The country’s relatively young population has adopted payment technology enthusiastically The budding FinTech ecosystem has strong backing from the government and the central bank the country already has a state-of-the-art payments infrastructure that Saudi Payments Saudi Payment’s Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment system has facilitated precisely the account-to-account transfers that can become a launchpad for open banking which facilitate the transfer of funds between buyers and sellers merchants receive their funds at the end of the day Open banking will therefore encourage competition and provide a mixture of challenges and opportunities for incumbents They will have to abandon the traditional “do-it-yourself” model in which the bank is the sole producer and distributor of products and services they will move to a model in which banks continue to develop their own products and services but use FinTech and third parties as distributors or the banks provide products and services created by FinTechs and others incumbents will need to exploit transactional data to enhance their services and offer new products pay later,” account aggregators (that collate account information) so-called “paytechs” are in a strong position They can gain valuable access to customer information and use it to enhance products and improve the customer experience There are already three such start-ups in the region Their efforts will pave the way for more innovation While this is encouraging for the burgeoning paytech ecosystem competition will also affect start-ups and established players will also need to adapt to the changes from open banking which until now have struggled to find a sponsor bank to offer their services Such companies may eventually threaten some of today’s FinTech leaders Another force disrupting the ecosystem will be the entry of attract global established FinTechs eyeing the fast growing GCC region While competition will be a major element in promoting open banking and payment service providers must cooperate to gain public trust First movers will help set the stage and write the rules for open banking This article originally appeared in Al Riyadh Daily While the full economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is unclear GCC banks can mitigate the risks and position themselves for emerging opportunities Governments in the GCC region know that a strong resilient financial services sector is critical to economic development and reform Around three dozen residents of neighbourhoods in Lisbon and Loures who are affected by the noise and pollution caused by Lisbon airport demonstrated yesterday evening near the airport – demanding the right to rest brought together citizens from the neighboruhoods of Areeiro who with posters and slogans shouted against the inaction of authorities Near the exit of the Airport metro station citizens demanded the end of night flights the non-expansion and closure of the airport in addition to the urgent construction of the new Lisbon airport outside the city and a new green lung in the city explained that the protest is related to the announced expansion of Humberto Delgado airport recalling the latest news in which "it was indicated that the works will cost 300 million euros and last three years for a structure which is declared to be provisional" but the main one is that this airport has to move to the location of the new airport We are residents affected by this airport and expanding is a completely scandalous thing" and according to figures from the Independent Technical Commission "depending on the measurements there will be around 300 to 380 thousand people affected" by aircraft noise including parts of the city of Lisbon and areas to the north such as Camarate Sérgio Morais says that the noise caused by planes means for citizens in these areas "poor sleep the smell of fuel and high blood pressure also related to the noise"