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Paul Wayne Wright
The opening of the Abu Dhabi International Bank (ADIB) in Washington, D.C. last year was accompanied by a number of fanciful newspaper stories suggesting that the bank would engage in some spectacular and glamorous financial wheeling and dealing, as well as become a funnel for big "petrodollar" investments in the U.S. By now, however, people who know what the bank is really doing are ready to agree with the man who runs it, Paul Wayne Wright, who has always been saying: "The only thing glamorous about us is our name."
Mr. Wright, who holds the title of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, neglects to mention one other glamorous thing about the bank: its location, less than two blocks from the White House. But when he tells you what the bank does do, it certainly doesn't sound particularly exciting: except to people who are turned on by the traditional operations of a solid, safe and conservatively-managed bank.
"We are a commercial bank," Mr. Wright says, "with a federal charter from the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. We do what you might expect: make short and medium-term loans to corporations; provide performance and bid bonds; issue documentary credits, and so forth. But we don't do retail banking, and although...