Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj: Leveraging technology through turbulent
times
Address by His Excellency Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of
Bahrain, at the MEFTEC 2009, Manama, 10 February 2009.
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Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am pleased to welcome you to Bahrain for the 2009 Middle East Financial Technology
Exhibition and Conference, or MEFTEC as it is popularly called. This morning, as I look
around, I am happy to see that this event continues to arouse so much interest. Each year
the number of participants continues to grow, a clear testament to the success of this
Exhibition and Conference. I would like to thank the organisers for their efforts in enhancing
and improving each event, and the delegates for their participation. I wish you a pleasant
stay here.
Information Technology is, of course, at the heart of the modern financial services industry.
Banks have used advances in information technology to improve their service to clients and
to improve the ways in which they manage their risks.
The delivery of financial services has been fundamentally transformed by technological
innovations such as mobile phone banking, internet banking and the ability to trade stocks
and bonds from a home computer. For many millions of people around the world these
technological innovations have improved the speed, availability, and cost of financial
services.
Technological advances have also contributed to financial innovation. Had it not been for
technological innovation, and particularly increases in computing power, the kinds of
products which enable a business to manage its interest rate, foreign exchange rate, and
funding risks could never have been developed. These products are now so commonplace
that we tend to take them for granted. We forget just how important they have become to
well-managed businesses.
The theme of this year's conference is "leveraging technology through turbulent times."
These are, without a doubt, turbulent times. The world is confronting its most serious
financial crisis in several generations.
The current global financial crisis has certainly been a reminder that not all financial
innovation is a good thing. Some of the new financial instruments that have been created in
the past decade have imposed large costs, not just on those who own them, but also on the
wider society. It is clear that we, the regulators, will need to become much more cautious
about financial innovation than we tended to be in the years before the crisis.
At the same time, however, we should remember the benefits that innovation has also
managed to deliver. So, looking to the future, we can be confident that financial innovation
and technological innovation will continue to advance together. That is why we consider
MEFTEC, which is a showcase for the best in financial technology, plays such an important
part in underpinning Bahrain's position as the financial centre for the GCC and wider Middle
Eastern region.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure that you are eager to see what the exhibitors have to offer.
I thank you for joining us today and again extend my appreciation and thanks to the
organizers and exhibitors. I wish you a successful Conference and Exhibition.