Fresh from getting its DIFC branch office open for business, this publication attended the bank's grand opening party in Dubai last week.

The WealthBriefing team didn’t just work hard at pulling off a big awards night for the Middle East and North Africa wealth management industry in Dubai last week. 

This publication’s group editor, Tom Burroughes and Andrew Deane, head of business development APAC and MENA also found time the day before to join Liechtensteinische Landesbank to help celebrate the grand opening of its branch office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, aka DIFC. Present at the event were LLB senior figures including Ludovic Pernot, senior executive officer and managing director, based in Dubai; Dr Gabriel Brenna, head of the private banking division, based in Liechtenstein, and Aditya Mallick, head of private banking for the Middle East (GCC and SA segment), based in Dubai.

The Europe-based private bank rented out a snazzy restaurant in the Waldorf Astoria in Dubai to mark the opening. We were struck by the wide cross-section of clients, both those who originally come from the Gulf region and international clients now based in Dubai and nearby. 

While these are not particularly settled times geopolitically, it looks as if a firm that can play on its strengths as a bastion of stability and long-term thinking should be placed to win clients. With a few other players recently setting up shop in Dubai or building them up, such as DBS, LLB will be one to watch to see if it stays the course. This is very much a market for those who think in decades and not the next quarterly reporting cycle. With LLB doing well in our awards, it should be in a strong position.

(See here for an overview of the MENA region's wealth sector.)