Around 150 bankers and cards and payments executives from across the region are expected to attend the Lafferty Retail Finance Convention MENA, beginning 26 September at the Cairo Marriot Hotel. The conference, hosted by Visa in association with Lafferty Group, will consider the prospects for retail banking in Egypt and the wider MENA region. The two-day event coincides with the launch of Lafferty Egypt, which will drive the group's growth in the Middle East and North Africa.
Guest speakers at the conference will include Lord Desai, Chairman of the OMFIF Advisory Board and Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, Dr Hala Al Said, Executive Director, Egyptian Banking Institute, John Barry, Head of Global Government Relations, Visa and the newly appointed Chairman of Lafferty Egypt, Essam El Mallakh.
Prior to joining Lafferty Group, Mr El Mallakh was Head of Retail Banking at Arab African International. His appointment, and the establishment of Lafferty Egypt, represents a significant landmark in the company's overall global expansion strategy. Lafferty Group has recently established similar operations in India and Brazil. Alvaro Musa, President of Lafferty Brazil, will also be present at the Cairo conference. Mr Musa has a wealth of experience in cards and payments, having previously been CEO at Credicard and Fininvest and a senior Citibank executive in both Brazil and the US.
Lafferty Egypt will look to provide the highest standards of insight, objectivity and market intelligence to leaders in the areas of retail banking, cards and personal financial services. The group's Cards and Consumer Finance intelligence covers 65 markets worldwide and it brings invaluable research, market overviews, trend analyses, regulatory updates, knowledge and education to the retail financial industry in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa.
Michael Lafferty, Chairman of Lafferty Group, explained the reasoning behind Lafferty Group's increased focus on Egypt and the MENA region. He said "An enormous opportunity awaits banks in Egypt and across the MENA region. The right combination of incentives and products needs to be put in place to overcome resistance to cash alternatives and in Egypt, in particular, there remain significant opportunities in lending to the SME sector.
More widely, there is a wonderful opportunity for the MENA region to build a strong and innovative retail banking system 'from the ground up', a system that serves people, small businesses and real economies rather than chasing the illusory 'profits' of trading and transacting. Indeed, banks in MENA have already shown themselves to be well capable of grasping the retail banking opportunity and in particular the potential of new technologies such as mobile / smartphone and E-money."
