Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj: Bahrain country showcase
Speech by His Excellency Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, at
the Bahrain country showcase, Dubai, 14 May 2007.
* * *
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: Good Morning.
Assalam Alaikum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all here today, and to open this Bahrain Country Showcase
event.
Bahrain, of course, has a long history as a financial centre, including a global profile as a centre for
Islamic finance. But Bahrain has much more to offer than simply its experience and credibility -
however important these factors are, of course.
Many developments have also quietly been taking place in recent years, and I am pleased that we
have an opportunity such as this one to publicize just some of the features that continue to make
Bahrain a thriving financial centre.
For whilst regional competition has undoubtedly grown significantly - and by the way this is something
that I welcome, as benefiting the region as a whole - it is also true to say that Bahrain has continued
to thrive as an international financial centre. This is something that perhaps doesn't attract the publicity
that it ought to, but is perhaps understandable - news organizations look for what's new, more than for
what's stayed the same.
Before I hand over to my colleague from Bahrain Financial Services Development, part of Bahrain's
Economic Development Board, to highlight the key features of Bahrain's financial services sector, let
me just say a few words about current regulatory developments.
Bahrain has progressed quite dramatically in recent years, in terms of regulation. The Bahrain
Monetary Agency - long-established as the country's central bank and highly respected banking
regulator - became a single regulator in 2002, when it was also given responsibility for supervising the
insurance sector and capital markets. Last year saw the culmination of this process, with the
introduction of new legislation and the creation of the Central Bank of Bahrain as the successor
organization to the BMA.
Parallel to this process of institutional reform has been an unprecedented period of development and
consolidation in terms of our regulations. Starting in 2004, we introduced a system of comprehensive
Rulebooks, containing all our regulations in easily accessible format, to improve communication and
transparency. And we introduced new regulatory frameworks for insurance and investment business
firms, in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Now, we are working on updating our capital markets rules. The first element of this is our new rules
on collective investment undertakings, which will underpin Bahrain's position as the region's leading
funds centre, by introducing - for the first time - regulations specifically geared for expert funds and
other alternative asset classes, such as hedge funds.
Collectively, these initiatives have aimed to ensure that Bahrain maintains its leading role as a
financial centre, in terms of responding to evolving market demands. I am pleased to say that these
efforts were positively acknowledged by the IMF last year, in their Financial Sector Assessment review
of Bahrain. But we are not complacent, and we will be continuing to develop our regulations in light of
market needs and evolving standards.
On this note, let me now turn to my colleague from the EDB, Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa,
who will present in more detail Bahrain's financial sector.