Israel's Accord With UAE Holds Big Private Banking Potential - Citigroup

Tom Burroughes

8 March 2021

Amidst all the grind of dealing with a pandemic, one matter that might have slipped under wealth managers’ mental radar is how Israel and the United Arab Emirates have improved their diplomatic relations.

This paves the way for an upsurge in investment and commercial relations and adds to how the jurisdictions have led the world in rolling out vaccines.

In the light of this, some firms are very much aware of how important this improved relationship is. was a corporate merger you would see the complementary angles,” he said.

The agreement happened rather sooner than people had expected, he said.

“It is an incredibly exciting time. And this is a massive step in normalising Israel’s relations with the rest of the world,” Corney said.

A big prize in terms of improved relations would be Saudi Arabia, he said.

Already, investment flows between the UAE and Israel can be counted in the billions. “There’s potential for goods and services trade to be more like $3 billion,” Corney said.

The UAE is interested in what Israel has to offer in areas such as cybersecurity technology, he said. About 8 per cent of the world’s cyber-tech is Israel-based. There is potentially strong UAE interest in investing in the Israel bond market, as well as in equities and foreign exchange,” he said.

The fast rollout of vaccines by Israel and the UAE also underscores the benefits of co-operation. The speed of the distribution in Israel also attests to how Israel, which has been attacked many times since its founding in the late 40s, has a survival mind-set, Corney added.