GCC Bankers Discuss Banking Sector's Obstacles, Credit Issues, Challenges and Ambitions ...

Snip from today's article ~ Meanwhile, GCC Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs Dr. Nasser Al-Qaood, said the GCC adopted the Monetary Union, and the Monetary Council, the establishment of the GCC Bank which would pave way for the launch of the single currency.

Executive Manager of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dr. Ahmad Al-Khulaifi, of Saudi Arabia, said the geographical closeness of GCC economies contributed to the monetary union and the GCC Bank. GCC Bank Headquarters in Riyadh ... Saudi Arabia

3/24/2011

GCC bankers discuss banking sector's obstacles, credit issues, challenges and ambitions ...

DOHA, Participants in the 10th GCC Banking Conference discussed Thursday a host of issues ranging from problems facing the banking sector in the six GCC countries, and challenges and ambitions of the credit centers.

CEO of Qatar's Credit Information Center Sheikh Bandar Al-Thani called for raising awareness of the public in the "culture of credit." He said the center's objective was to protect credit reports supplied to Qatar Central Bank.

"Every bank has its own data base and this obstacle will be solved with the banks in stages, where coordination will take place between credit centers to exchange information," said Sheikh Bandar.

General Manager of the Saudi Credit Information company Nabeel Al-Mubarak said value of personal credit did not exceed 37 billion Saudi Riyals before 2004, but reached 220 billion now.

Meanwhile, GCC Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs Dr. Nasser Al-Qaood, said the GCC adopted the Monetary Union, and the Monetary Council, the establishment of the GCC Bank which would pave way for the launch of the single currency.

Executive Manager of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dr. Ahmad Al-Khulaifi, of Saudi Arabia, said the geographical closeness of GCC economies contributed to the monetary union and the GCC Bank.

Al-Khulaifi said the GCC countries should address inflation, short-term interest rates, foreign currency reserves, budget deficits and the public debts ratio in order to strengthen their economies.

He said the GCC monetary union was facing difficulties like lack of information and statistics, and coordination related to economic policies and legal regulations.

CEO of Qatar National Bank Ali Emadi, addressing the conferees, said it was important to focus on good governance, lending policy and risk management in order to prevent economic crises.

CEO of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Group Ibrahim Dabdoub said impacts of the global economic crisis have been contained though their consequences were very clear on the banking sectors.

Dabdoub said the diversification of financial resources of GCC countries helped them achieve surpluses in their budgets, noting extraordinary credit growth in 2007-08.

He attributed credit crises worldwide to extraordinary credit growth. Dabdoub called for preventing the extraordinary credit growth and to focus on diversifying sources of lequidity.

For his part, Governor of the UAE's Central Bank Sultan Al-Suwaidi said the GCC countries were complying with the Basel III criteria.

Addressing the conference, Al-Suwaidi called for creating markets for bonds in the six GCC countries - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE.

He called for a strict supervision on financial tools in order to avoid "bubbles" in the monetary market.

Governor of Bahrain Central Bank Rasheed Al-Maaraj said all banks in the region should carefully read Basel III.

He said the banks did not comprehend all requirements stated by Basel III.

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