Armen Papazian

Armen Papazian is a renonowed economic commentator based in the Middle East, a world authority on Islamic Finance and one of the most influential commentators on the future of global finance. Armen's Keipr-Papazian Report on the state of the UAE Finances is essential reading for all senior bankers, policy makers and ministers in the Gulf.

Armen is the inventor of two unique and novel concepts, Space Value of Money and Islamic Money Creation, which stretch the boundaries of conventional and Islamic finance theory and position him as a financial futurist of global relevance.

His fields of specialisation are Capital Markets, Finance, and Monetary and Fiscal Policy. Prior to setting up Keipr, a boutique advisory firm, Armen was Head of Islamic Finance at UBS, where he led the Islamic operations of the bank globally, serving wealth management, asset management and the investment bank.

Previously, Armen was Senior Vice President Innovation and Development at the Dubai International Financial Exchange (Nasdaq Dubai). Here, Armen led the launch of the Middle East's first Conventional and Islamic Structured Products platform with Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Merrill Lynch. He has also led the creation of the region's first tradable bond and Sukuk indices with HSBC, the first fungible dual listing with a US exchange, and the first UAE company IPO.

Armen is regularly involved in industry discussions and policy making through interviews, keynote speeches and paper presentations in the Middle East. He has published extensively on monetary economics, economic development, and regional capital markets.

Armen received his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, UK, specialising in Financial Economics. He was until recently a Fellow of the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

Armen speaks all over the world to corporate and governmental audiences. Recent engagements have taken him to Kuala Lumpur for the International Herald Tribune Conference, London for the FT Islamic Summit, Bahrain for the World Islamic Banking Conference and Paris for the launch of the first Islamic Finance programme at Palais Brongniart, France.