QCB governor reaffirms strength of Qatar's banking sector

Qatar's banking sector has performed superbly despite challenges facing the global financial sector, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Governor HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani said as he addressed the opening session of Euromoney Qatar Conference on Monday.
He said that such an outstanding performance reflects the strength of QCB's supervisory and regulatory role in ensuring the compliance of all banks operating in the country with laws and legislation governing the local and international financial sectors, including the calculation of bank capital adequacy based on the Basel Committee III requirements and QCB directives, which are being implemented since the beginning of the year.
HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud added that QCB's supervisory role aims to ensure banks' compliance with laws on combating terrorism funding and money laundering so as to enhance the performance of the entire banking sector.
He expressed hope that conference discussions are effective in the development of a future vision that helps to strengthen the role of the financial sector in supporting and stabilizing global economy and contribute to its growth.
In this regard, he pointed to the current situation of the global economy and challenges facing the economic, financial and monetary policy-makers, which, he said, requires further prudential and precautionary measures.
HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud said Qatar's monetary policy and the liquidity management process has made significant achievements as it contributed to the promotion of economic growth and maintaining acceptable levels of inflation of around 3 percent.
In coordination with Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) and Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) as the regulatory and supervisory bodies, he added, QCB has launched a unified strategy for regulatory and supervisory entities overseeing the services sector and financial markets in a bid to develop a strong and effective regulatory framework for the financial sector to support economic prosperity and financial stability. This has contributed to the upgrading of Qatar Exchange to join emerging markets in global indicators, he said.
He noted that Qatar supports capital markets through the development of a plan to bring new companies to be publicly offered in order to increase the number of listed companies, in addition to the development and regulation of financial markets and controlling them in line with the best international standards based on the Qatar National Vision 2030.
As for international relations, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud said QCB enjoys excellent ties with all the regional and international financial entities and works to deepen relations with the different central banks in order to serve mutual interests.
In this regard, he noted that QCB has forged several memorandums of understanding agreements with central banks, most recently during HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's visit to China and South Korea earlier this month.