Davy Blommaert heads the Diamond Business at National Bank of Fujairah, which falls under the bank’s corporate and institutional banking division. With nearly 10 years of experience in the diamond industry, he was tasked to establish a unit within NBF that is focused on providing working capital and trade finance services specific to the diamond sector.
Prior to joining NBF, Davy Blommaert spent six years at Antwerp Diamond Bank, where he supported the development of its Antwerp and Hong Kong businesses before moving on to oversee its Dubai office. His two-year stint at International Diamond Laboratories DMCC (IDL) as its finance manager and legal counsel saw him play a key role in helping IDL set up its operations in locations from Mumbai and Jeddah to Istanbul and Antwerp.
In an Interview with Rough & Polished, Davy Blommaert talks about NBF’s methodology, systems and policies, which protects the bank from losses.
Below are the excerpts:
For the benefit of our readers who are spread across the globe, can you please take us through the National Bank of Fujairah’s (NBF) history… from the time it was established to date?
With its strategic location and proximity to major trade centers around the world, the UAE has long maintained a high ranking in the ease of doing business attracting investors and stakeholders across the supply chain and enabling them to benefit from this unique growth environment.
With this in mind, National Bank of Fujairah emerged as the partner for businesses leveraging its segmented and multi-disciplinary sectorial approach with twelve business segments namely, Business Financing, Trading and Diversified, Energy and Marine, Government and Large Corporate, Contracting, Services and Manufacturing, Financial Institutions and Liability Management, Equipment Finance, Global Transaction Services, Corporate Finance and Precious Metals and Diamond.
NBF’s journey with bullion banking commenced with gold financing in 2002, when the bank first established its relationship with a prominent European bank to supply bullion. Currently the Bank is one of the leading financier of the Gold and Diamond Jewellery industry in the UAE. As such, the bank expanded its portfolio by venturing into diamonds financing in 2015, at a time when ADB had decided to exit the UAE market, which proved to be an excellent time for NBF to set up its division and commence its services.
Boasting a growing team, NBF’s dedicated precious metals and diamond unit has been focused to providing personalised services to UAE-based clients in the jewellery and diamond industry. The bank’s specialised team has also been focused on serving the jewellery and diamond industries covering major verticals namely, gold and diamond jewellery, rough and polished diamonds. Based in Dubai’s Almas Tower, in the heart of one of the world’s biggest diamond trading centres, NBF’s diamond financing team focuses on by providing short-term trade finance products to established rough and polished diamond traders and manufacturers. With its vaulting facilities, both in-house and with Transguard in Deira Gold Souk Dubai, the bank’s services entail facilitating trades in gold, platinum and silver.
