Sigurður Einarsson við opnun útibús Kaupþings í Dubai í febrúar 2008, af Arabian Business.com.

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“We like to operate in a fairly focused and judicious way,” he continues. “We don’t like to come here and promise the earth, we like to do the work which people have kindly given us extremely well, and then build on that. That’s our strategy.” The level of return that strategy will reap in the long term has yet to be seen. Nevertheless, as the West teeters nervously on the verge of economic recession, the Middle East is one of the few spots – along with India and China – that should buck the downward trend. While Einarsson admits that Kaupthing is headed for leaner times, he remains confident that the bank’s Middle East operations will mark a bright spot on the map.

“Our organic growth is pretty high but we do expect that growth to slow down in 2008, mainly because of the general market conditions,” he accepts. “However, we definitely hope for a higher growth than our peers.

“It doesn’t look like there will be a crisis over here,” he continues. “The location, the growth, and the whole world situation benefits the Middle East very much. I’ve been asking around, and have always had the same answer – that there is no sign of a slump coming.”