ABU DHABI // Money is pretty much what you would expect to find in the Central Bank, but one collection of notes and coins is proving to be a visitor attraction.
Occupying a section of the ground floor of the building in Abu Dhabi, the Currency Museum contains rows of glass cases displaying paper notes and gold and silver coins dating from long before the Union.
Opened late last year to mark 40 years of the Central Bank, it has attracted school pupils as well as foreign and national currency researchers and collectors. Most visitors say they wished more people knew about the museum.
“It is so important for people to understand how the history of the UAE started, even before 1971,” said Rashid al Nuaimi, who works with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and also specialises in collecting UAE bank notes and stamps.
“Children will get to know about their country and history here so it is good if more people know about this. If tourist brochures carried information about it, more people would be attracted here.”
The museum has exhibits that range from gold and silver Islamic coins to the Indian rupees popular until the 1960s, with the stamp of the Reserve Bank of India and the crest of three Ashoka lions.
The exhibits explain how Abu Dhabi had its own currency and Dubai and the northern emirates used their own notes. Brown notes depicting dhows in the Bahraini dinar were used until 1966 in the capital.
The Saudi and Qatari riyal, with motifs of minarets and forts, were adopted by Dubai and the other emirates during the same period.
Exhibits also show how the Currency Board was established in 1973 with its main responsibility being “to issue national currency to replace currencies in circulation”, such as the Bahraini dinar and the Qatar and Dubai riyal.
The dirham was put into circulation for the first time on May 19, 1973 and the Qatari and Dubai riyal and the Bahraini dinar were replaced within weeks at the rate of Dh1 for one riyal and Dh10 for one dinar.
The first series of Dh100, Dh50, Dh10, Dh5 and Dh1 notes were put into circulation with the Dh1,000 added in 1976.
“You can read and understand history through the money because by understanding what money and currency was used you will know how this area was strong in trade and with which countries,” said Ahmed al Hasawi, who works in a government department. He travelled with friends from Umm Al Quwain to visit the museum.
“We had our own Indian rupees so you can understand how the Gulf traders went to India. The history of the currency tells you how this area was strong for trading.
“The museum has notes in very good condition and that high quality is very difficult to find. It is good for professional collectors to see because it is very difficult for us to see good quality special issue notes in the market sometimes.”
Old cash counting and sorting machines are also on display.
“We thought it would be good for people to see old shredders, bank-note cancellers where 100 notes could be put in at one time to be cancelled,” said a museum officer.
“The machine would mutilate notes by making a hole in the security features. There are also currency processing machines that could process eight bank notes a second to check for authenticity and sort notes out into fit and unfit lots. Visitors are also interested in a weighing scale that weighed gold bars.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae
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When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
