Forget investment banking, Qatar takes aim at asset management and insurance

The gleaming tower of the Qatar Financial Centre never quite rivalled the DIFC as a bustling metropolis for investment bankers and now it's given up the ghost to try and carve a niche for itself within asset management, captive insurance and reinsurance.

The move, announced yesterday, is a "new strategic phase" and by focusing on these sectors rather than banking, the QFC is aiming to challenge other regional financial centres.

At least that's the theory. As Shashank Srivastava, acting chief executive of the QFC, told the FT: "Now we will focus on these three hubs where we think Qatar can become pre-eminent."

However, the strategy shake-up also comes at the expense of 100 jobs within the QFC - or a third of its headcount - as it looks to outsource certain functions.

The large deals to be had in the gas-rich emirate means that it's achieved a fair amount of success in attracting investment banks. Most recently, Rothschild opened an office in Qatar, but both Nomura and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi gained licences last year. Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and RBS also all have a presence.

However, the problem is that large teams of investment bankers don't follow the licences, and Dubai remains the regional hub for banking, despite the emirate's recent very public debt woes.

The QFC's desire to become the regional insurance centre is nothing new - it stated its ambitions towards the beginning of 2009.

But by making a play to become the main GCC financial centre for asset management, it faces some stiff competition.

For a start, Bahrain - traditionally the Gulf's main financial centre - has been focusing on asset management, as well as insurance and Islamic finance. It now has 2,711 funds managing $8.55bn, according to the Central Bank of Bahrain

Dubai is also attempting to draw in asset management firms. At a conference in January, DIFC's chief economist Nasser Saidi said the financial centre would consider a "substantial" cut in fees on asset managers this year in bid to attract more firms to the emirate.