Good to hear about new entrants - what about established players?

Here on DubaiBeat.com, our focus is on new companies and market players in the Middle East. But it sometimes helps to review how established players have been doing here.

Looking at the hot industry of banking and finance in the UAE, we can see current foreign players are doing quite well. According to The McKinsey Quarterly, the four major foreign banks in the UAE (ABN Amro, Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered) together hold more than 50 percent of the UAE's credit card market.

While the background of some of these players in the UAE dates back to early 20th century (e.g the British Bank of the Middle East which was later acquired by HSBS, or the Netherlands Trading Society which was later become ABN Amro), it will be quite interesting to see how the story unfolds in the coming years - considering the competition with local and other foreign banks.