Bank hopes for new licence
UK-based bank HSBC is optimistic it will establish a stronger presence in Libya. Currently, the lender only has a representative office in Tripoli, but has a three-year plan in place to determine whether to reapply for a banking licence.
“Libya is a very important market and the plan is to establish a presence there, if all goes well with the transition to democracy,” says Hatim Gheriani, head of global banking and markets at HSBC Libya, speaking on the sidelines of the Libya Focus Day conference organised by MEED.
But the bank is hesitant to enter the market fully until there is greater stability.
“There is a political process that is emerging. We need the security situation to improve and with a judiciary and legal system that can enforce the law, then it will be time for us to reapply for a [banking] licence,” says Gheriani.
HSBC missed out on a banking licence in 2010 when it was shortlisted with five other banks including the UK’s Standard Chartered, UAE’s Mashreq Bank, National Bank of Dubai and Qatar Islamic Bank.
The eventual winner was Italy’s UniCredit, for which the then governor of the Libyan central bank, Farhat Omar Bengdara, served as a board member.
“We have a very well regulated sector. The Central Bank was [an institution] not abolished by Gaddafi, so there is continuation and an experience that has been built up,” says Gheriani.
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