The current market situation and our position

So far 2008 has been a year of market surprises. Most asset classes have performed poorly in relation to their historical track records and this may possibly continue. Despite commodities, in general, being the exception to the market retracement they have not proven to be safe havens because “real assets’’ or “hard assets’’ like residential and commercial real estate in many areas of the world have led the downward trend and, in some cases, can be considered the catalysts to the downward spiral. This is clearly evidenced by real estate markets in most developed countries posting negative returns mirrored by stocks producing a negative real long-run return, the first time this has happened since 1980. 

In the face of these turbulent times our resolve and adherence to our strategy has been paramount. FBME continues to follow its mission which is to develop and grow in partnership with its clients by offering customised solutions. Its continuing and growing success is directly aligned to its client base and, as a consequence, it has not been exposed to or suffered from the current stock and real estate turmoil experienced in recent times. Nor has it been affected by the adverse happenings taking place within the International Banking Sector.

The returns that we have generated in the past 5 years have all been reinvested into our business, equity and people. We continue to believe that pressures on consumers will grow and therefore our internal strategy has been to increase our liquidity ratios in order to continue to invest in our client base and its businesses, thus mitigating any risks to our client deposits. We are endeavouring to remain open as to our vision, mission, market exposures and strategic intentions and have asked our correspondent banks to do the same. We were very pleased with the reciprocal openness that our correspondent banks have offered.

It goes with out mention that our undertaking is to remain as close to our clients’ businesses as possible and are willing to discuss our strategy on a one-to-one basis. 

NB: For a full list of our correspondent banks please click here

Fadi M. Saab

Chief Executive Officer